–eyewitness recounts the incident

NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD cosmetologist Ashminee Harryram of lot 9 ‘B’ Lusignan Embankment Road, East Coast Demerara died yesterday after being shot to her head while walking home along the Lusignan Railway Embankment.

She had just disembarked from a bus after returning from Georgetown where she and her cousin went shopping.
Her aunt, Ms. Elo Alick told this publication that the teen and a female cousin went to Georgetown to purchase some cosmetology items as usually takes orders to do people’s hair and nails. The aunt said that the two cousins had exited a bus from the Lusignan main road and were walking home.

However, as the teens made their way, a burgundy car with the registration number blocked was parked on the left hand side of the embankment road. The teen was approximately 70 meters away from her home when an armed man exited the vehicle and fired a shot to Ashminee’s head before snatching her phone and escaping in the car.
A woman who asks to remain anonymous said she was just exiting a friend’s gateway when she saw a man of African descent exit a burgundy-coloured car and shoot Harryram to her head, grab her phone and drive off.
The eyewitness wondered why the man shot the teen and took her phone but did not even harm her cousin.

“When I saw the man drive off, I run to help the girl, but blood was rapidly flowing from her head. I tried my best to help her, but she wasn’t responding, her family members then came and take her to the hospital,” the eyewitness said.
Ashminee was a student of Beterverwagting Secondary School until 2012.
When this publication visited the hospital, Ashminee’s body had already been taken to the mortuary. Her mother, who was also there, was barely able to say that she can’t believe what had happened to her daughter.
Shortly after the shooting, the police issued a statement saying: “The police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of cosmetologist, Ashminee Harryram, 19 years, of Lusignan, ECD, who was shot to her head at about 11:15h today, Thursday July 10, 2014, while she was walking along the Lusignan Railway Embankment.”
Besides other relatives, Harryram leaves to mourn her three sisters, a brother and her mother.

(By Asif Hakim)