CITY Magistrate Ann McLennan, on Friday last, remanded 32-year-old labourer Kurt Clark of Charlestown, Georgetown for the robbery/murder of Cane Grove rice farmer Hardat Kissoon, which occurred on the University of Guyana (UG) Public Road at Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown on June 1, 2015.

Clark is the second person to be charged with the murder of 42-year-old Kissoon of Cane Grove, Mahaica, following the arraignment of excavator operator Sherwin Trotman of Lot 45 Section D, South Turkeyen.
He was not required to plead to the indictable charge, detailing that he murdered the rice farmer in the furtherance of a robbery.

The prosecution’s facts were also not revealed to the court, and the matter was transferred before the Sparendaam Magistrate for August 6 calling.

Kissoon, a father of three, was fatally shot during a minibus robbery at Turkeyen, after he was trailed from a City bank where he had encashed a cheque for $500,000.

Trotman, the first man to be charged, made his appearance before Magistrate McLennan on July 1 last and was remanded to prison.

According to a Police report, Kissoon was shot and killed at about 14:30hrs on the day in question by a bandit posing as a passenger in the minibus in which he was travelling. The ‘passenger’ had indicated he wanted to get off the bus, but as the man was passing Kissoon, he pulled out a firearm, held the rice farmer at gunpoint, and demanded a bag that the farmer had in his possession.

A struggle ensued over the bag, during which Kissoon was shot to his chest whilst the perpetrator escaped with the bag.

Kissoon lay dead in the back seat of the minibus, until his body was transported to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), where he was officially pronounced dead on arrival.

By Geeta Rampersaud