Family believes murder of Bath Settlement man stemmed from previous incident

The family of a man who was on Wednesday murdered at Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice (WCB) believes that he was involved in a previous confrontation with the perpetrators of the act.

According to the Police, the 34-year-old man was beaten to death by protestors after he fired several shots in their direction. While the Police identified the man as Chatterpaul Harripaul called ‘Roy,’ his sister said his name is actually Pritipaul Hargobin.

Hargobin is married with two children.

Ronita Hargobin told the News Room that her brother left their Bath Settlement, home on Wednesday afternoon in search of a man on a blue motorcycle.

“He said he was looking for some guy on a blue motorcycle and there were some ladies who told him the guy gone…Georgetown side and [he] jumped into his vehicle and I jumped in after him too.

“He was upset and crying and I asked what the person did to him and he wasn’t talking or telling me,” Ronita said.

The crying woman said protestors at Bath Settlement flocked around the car and her brother enquired from them about the man on the motorcycle. The protestors who are residents of Bath Settlement, told him that they did not see the man and began hitting him with a stick and cuffing him.

Ronita said she was also hit in the head after which her brother went back into his vehicle and drove off leaving her behind.

He told her that he was heading home but shortly after, he returned to the scene and she heard gunshots.

The woman said she is not aware that her brother had a gun and was not close enough to see who fired the shots.

Police said it was Hargobin who fired one round into the air before discharging three rounds towards a crowd of protestors who were about 60 meters away, using a shotgun.

“I just saw a whole set of guy run to him, I don’t know what they did and I was running to get to [them] and shouting ‘don’t hurt him! Don’t hurt him!” Ronita told the News Room.

Police said the man was attacked and beaten and ranks who were some distance away, rushed to the scene and noticed he was lying on the road with several injuries about his body.

Ronita said she “begged people to pick him up and nobody was helping and I ran and ran to get my car to take him to the hospital.”

Hargobin was subsequently taken to the Fort Wellington Hospital by the Police where he was pronounced dead by a Doctor on duty. Hargobin was a mechanic.

The body is currently at the hospital as the investigation continues.

Hargobin is the second person to have lost his life on Wednesday since protests started calling for justice over the brutal murder of the Henry boys.

Earlier on Wednesday, a 17-year-old who is related to three of the seven suspects in custody for the Henry boys was beaten to death at Number 3 Village, WCB.