Man shot dead at Cultural Centre
Another gunned down in Albouystown
By Kim Lucas
Stabroek News
November 25, 2003
A young Buxtonian man who escaped gunmen only a week ago was one of two persons who were shot dead in different parts of the city on Sunday night.
Information reaching Stabroek News yesterday said 21-year-old Kwesi Williams, of the Buxton railway embankment, East Coast Demerara, was shot and killed at about 11 pm on Sunday, while in the compound of the National Cultural Centre on Homestretch Avenue. A performance of 'Awe Society 14', which includes a play on the crime wave, had not too long ago finished.
In the second shooting, unknown assailants gunned down Trevor Mansohing, 38, of North Road, Lacytown, at the corner of Hill and James Streets, Albouystown at about 1:30 am yesterday. The police, up to press time last night, were unable to say what led to the shooting of either Williams or Mansohing. Persons in the vicinity of the Albouystown shooting scene only claimed to have heard gunshots around the time the Mansohing was killed, but no one admitted seeing anything.
Meanwhile, Williams's mother, Avril Agard, told Stabroek News yesterday that she could not say whether or not her son had gone to the Cultural Centre where a popular satirical show was being staged.
As friends and relatives gathered around her, Agard explained that just one week ago, a group of men had broken into her home looking for her second-born child. It was the same Monday night when unknown gunmen shot dead two other Buxtonians in the village.
"Last week Monday night (at about 10:30) all I hear is 'Cleesheng!' this window break and they come in and enquire whether he was here," the woman said, referring to the breaking of the glass to her front window. Only she, her two daughters and two grandchildren were in the house at the time.
The woman claimed that she was unaware as to how many men had entered her home that night, or who they were, since she never looked at them. Sources told this newspaper that Williams left the village after that incident and hurried efforts were being made for him to leave the country. He was due to depart for Trinidad yesterday.
Stabroek News understands that Williams was picked up from the seawall on Sunday night by a group of men while at a party and was being taken behind the Botanical Gardens when he escaped from the car and tried to run into the Cultural Centre.
"They collect him from the seawalls and drive behind the gardens, apparently to execute him, but he ran away. After he run in the downstairs dressing room, [some actors] started to make noise...These men [who went after Williams] were not policemen. They pulled him out and lashed him against a white car, HB something and one said 'Leh we finish he off!' and he tried to run again and they chase him and shoot him," one eyewitness claimed.
Sources believed that a wanted man who was linked to last Monday's shootings in Buxton shot the young man. One motive for the murder was that Williams might have been seen at a 'sport' drinking with a group of men who were suspected to be members of the so called 'phantom' group.
Agard said she last saw Williams at about 2:30 pm on Sunday when he told her he was hungry. The next she heard of her son was yesterday at about 7 am when one of her daughters told her that there had been a shooting.
Williams' sister was unable to state who had been shot, but Agard said her husband travelled to a city morgue and identified his body. The man said he noticed only one wound on Williams's abdomen, but surmised that there could have been more.
When questioned whether her son had ever had any problems with anyone, the woman stated, "right now is not a problem case. Is whatever people feel like doing, they do."
Williams' death reportedly had negative effects on the sale of tickets for 'Awe Society 14', which was billed for the NCC this week and is said to be one of the reasons why the show has since been cancelled. (See other story)