Guard, 60, shot dead

MERE weeks before he was supposed to go on retirement, a 60-year-old Pentagon Security Services security guard was shot dead inside a Barataria pharmacy yesterday by two gunmen, who stole his loaded semi-automatic pistol.

The murder of veteran security guard, Estate Constable No 7564 Rajkumar Maharaj, a father of three, was witnessed by several customers including a police inspector, inside Health Net Pharmacy and Laboratory, located off the Eastern Main Road in Third Avenue, Barataria. Maharaj was one of two persons murdered within the space of 30 minutes yesterday, which has pushed the murder rate for this year to 66. In the other incident, a URP workman was fatally stabbed outside NHA offices in Lady Young Avenue, Morvant.

Police probing the murder of the security guard, told Newsday, they strongly believe the bandits had targetted Maharaj for his firearm and did not intend to rob the pharmacy. According to police reports, around 11 am, two men entered the pharmacy and spoke to a female clerk, enquiring about the cost of pharmaceutical drugs. While one of the men kept the clerk’s attention, his cohort ran up to Maharaj, pulled a gun and shot the security guard through his mouth at point blank range. Maharaj slumped to the ground and died almost instantly, with blood forming large pools around his body.

The bandits retrieved the dying officer’s Ruger nine millimetre semi-automatic pistol which was loaded with 15 rounds of ammunition. They then ran out of the pharmacy and escaped. The police inspector, who at the time was in full police uniform and at the back of the pharmacy, ran to the front after hearing the gunshot and saw the gunmen fleeing the scene. The officer contacted Morvant police to report the incident. Snr Supt Desmond Lambert, Supt Waldron Bishop, ASPs Gregory Correia and Phillip, Insps Dave Hilaire and Lester Hutchins (Homicide Bureau), Cpl Patrick Thomas and WPC Suzette Martin (Homicide Bureau) visited the scene.

Officers quickly cordoned off the area and carried out an unsuccessful mobile search for the killers. “He was a truly professional security guard and a nice person,” stated a dazed-looking Raymond Paryag  — owner of Pentagon Security Services — where Maharaj worked for the past ten years. Paryag later spoke to a shaken Karen Smart, manager of the pharmacy. He told Newsday that for the past five years his company had provided security guards to Health Net and that this was the first time an officer from his security firm had been killed in the line of duty. DMO Dr Iqbal Ackbar arrived on the scene, viewed the body and ordered it removed to the Port-of-Spain Mortuary. An autopsy will be carried out on Maharaj’s body today at the Forensic Sciences Centre.

Police officers theorise that the bandits may have gone to the pharmacy prior to the murder to study Maharaj’s movements including where he stood in the pharmacy and what type of weapon he had. Newsday was told that Maharaj who lived at 80 Mausica Road, D’Abadie recently transferred from a posting in Maraval to the Health Net Pharmacy. He was supposed to have gone on retirement in a matter of weeks. Senior police officers told Newsday they were worried that rival gangsters are targetting precepted security guards, for their weapons, especially since Commissioner of Police Hilton Guy announced that his latest three-month anti-crime initiative would focus on ridding communities of illegal firearms.

At least three persons have been killed in gang-related incidents within the past month. Up to late yesterday no arrests had been made in the Maharaj murder and Cpl Patrick Thomas of San Juan CID is continuing investigations.