The Buxton massacre
THE late Tuesday evening peace and quiet was shattered first by the sounds of a family quarrel, of gunshots ringing out, of flames licking wood. Then there was the sound of silence. Everything was as still as death. At the end of it all, Raul Herod, 36, had cold-bloodedly murdered his grandmother, Angela Herod, 97; mother, Shirley Cole, 56; aunt, Patricia Harris, 58; son, Rondell Herod 11; daughter Nandy Herod, 14; nephew, Orwin Herod, 15, and niece, Jonnelle Herod, before taking his own life at his Buxton, East Coast Demerara home. Herod, an operations supervisor attached to the Securicor Security Firm, had ordered his wife, Denise out of the house telling her to "go and enjoy your life", then, with a .32 Taurus pistol, shot dead six family members at point blank range, and set the two-storey house afire shortly before midnight Tuesday. His grandmother is believed to have perished in the fire after she was trapped upstairs, but reports said she was not shot. Seven charred bodies were pulled from the rubble and another lay in the yard. According to Government Pathologist, Dr Leslie Mootoo, who performed post mortem operations on the bodies, Herod was burnt alive while he lay bleeding from gunshot wounds to the head. Mootoo told the Chronicle that Herod's son, Rondell also had bullet wounds in the head and was still alive when flames swept over him. He said: "Some of the victims died of gunshot wounds while others were burnt alive". Herod's nephew, Orwin, whose body was found in the yard, died from a bullet wound which perforated a lung, Mootoo said. One of Herod's sons, Jermaine, nine, escaped after being shot, and is soon to undergo an operation to remove a bullet lodged in his left cheek. He is a patient at the Georgetown Hospital. From all accounts, Herod flew into a murderous rage after family members made derogatory comments about his wife. That was really the straw which broke the camel's back. A sister, Avril, who lost two children in the tragedy, told the Chronicle there were constant disputes between Raul and Denise, and other members of the Herod family. Denise's mother told the Chronicle: "They were living a miserable life ... they (the relatives) used to call her all kinds of names, most of which I can't even tell you." Herod's mother-in-law related that her daughter had told her that Monday night, she and Herod were watching television in their apartment downstairs when Herod's mother turned off the electricity power from upstairs. Herod then went upstairs to tell his mother that they were looking at television and as he pushed the door, a lamp which was behind it fell to the floor, breaking its glass bottom. After a quarrel erupted, Herod reportedly promised to buy a replacement glass bottom the next day. But Denise did not get the glass piece to buy in the village, and did not get the chance to go the Georgetown to following day to buy back the lamp, her mother explained. The mother-in-law said Denise told her that at about midnight Tuesday, Herod's mother began to stamp on the floor above them while they were asleep, complaining that she had to endure an electricity blackout because she was without her lamp which Herod had broken. Denise reportedly told her mother that the electricity had already come back on when Herod's mother was complaining about being in blackout. Then Herod told his wife: "Come and let us go to Georgetown (to stay) by your mother or your aunt." The two of them then went to the main road of the village to try to catch a bus for Georgetown, but transportation was difficult and they were not successful. According to the mother-in-law, as the couple was returning to the house, Herod heard his mother quarrelling and calling his wife a `duck drake' (an uncomplimentary remark). At this point, he told his wife to go alone, and as he attempted to run upstairs, she tried to hold him back, but he wriggled out and advised her to take care of herself and her daughter. Herod ran upstairs and his wife said she heard gun shots ringing out. Then, the entire house went up in flames. Neighbours said he had poured gasolene around the bottom flat, blasted a 20-pound gas cylinder which exploder, and apparently shot himself as the flames began sweeping through the wooden building. An eyewitness said Herod had earlier called out to neighbours to "come out and talk to meh mother or you all gon sorry." But no one had ventured out. Speaking with the Chronicle Thursday, sister Avril tearfully recounted years of torment suffered at her brother's hand. She is convinced that she would have been the first to die by her brother's hand, had she been at home that evening. She said she had complained to the management of Securicor where she, too, is employed, about her brother's behaviour. According to her, her Raul's violent temperament transcended into his personal relationships with women. She said her dead brother's first wife, Shanti had committed suicide a few years ago because he "never used to treat her good". Shanti reportedly sent Raul to the market one day, dressed the children in black and white and attempted to poison them all with an insecticide. But the children did not drink the deadly monocrotophus, but were reportedly given the bottle and spoon by their mother to dispose of after she had taken a dose. Two of Shanti's children met their death Tuesday. Jermaine, who survived, is her son. The killing evoked memories of a similar carnage in the same village about five years ago when another man ran amok, hacking to death six persons and a dog. Those killings began on Company Road. Then, Hubert Headly known as `Baby Arthur', armed with a cutlass, butchered his mother, Hyacinth; Shawn Sullivan, a young man; middle-aged Maude Hatton, a two-year old boy who was playing in a yard, seven-year old Melissa France and middle-aged man, Bunny Joseph
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