Midnight murder at stand pipe

A MIDNIGHT trip to fill water from a stand-pipe near his home early yesterday morning proved fatal for a 23-year-old Long-denville joiner as he was ambushed and murdered by a lone gunman.

Regel Seepaul, of Lawrence Wong Road, was shot several times in his chest as his older brother, Sonil, 35, looked on helplessly.  Within hours of the incident, police picked up a 38-year-old man, also of Longdenville, for questioning. Yesterday, Regel’s family were trying to make sense of the incident. His father, Bernard, said he heard the gunshots but didn’t realise they were being fired at his son. “My boys are good quiet boys. I never thought something happened to one of them,” the grieving man said as he looked at the spot where his son’s body fell just a few feet away from the stand-pipe. He said Regel had planned to get married and had purchased everything needed for a home although a date for his wedding had not yet been set.

Regel’s sister, Lisa, described him as a quiet and a shy person who did not smoke or drink. According to Lisa, it was Regel who looked after their mother at their home. His teenaged sister, Anisha, added: “He used to only work and work and work.” Police yesterday said they had no motive for the murder and were investigating an alleged land dispute. Investigators said threats were made to the family after a dispute erupted over a drain dug at the back of their house last week.  Yesterday, recalling Regel’s last moments, his sister-in-law, Michelle, told Newsday she and her husband, Sonil, lived at the back of the house Regel shared with his mother. She said that around 12.30 am when Sonil was going to the stand pipe on Pokhor Road, just a few metres from their house, Regel said he would go as well.

She added that Sonil stood only a few feet away and watched as his brother approached the stand-pipe. As Regel reached within a foot or two of the stand-pipe, a man appeared out of a clump of bushes approximately six feet away and fired several shots in his direction. A car that had been waiting on one of the streets at the intersection of Lawrence Wong and Pokhor Roads pulled alongside the stand pipe and picked up the gunman then sped away. Sonil screamed out to relatives saying: “Look they shoot Regel.” With assistance from his wife and a relative, Sonil placed his bleeding brother in the back seat of a car and rushed him to the Chaguanas District Health Facility where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The body was later transferred to the Forensic Sciences Centre where an autopsy was performed yesterday.  Sgt Loomy of the Cunupia Police Station is continuing investigations.