A 28-year-old Albouystown, Georgetown man who was freed on a murder charge in 2012 was shot dead by a lone gunman late Tuesday night in his community.
Dead is Rayburn Harvey of Lot 144 James Street, Albouystown. A close relative told Guyana Times International that Harvey was at a wake in Rasville around 23: 20h when he received a phone call. “Ah coming just now,” were his words to the person on the phone. The miner left the wake on a CG motorcycle with the promise to return but he never did. Harvey had reportedly stopped in the vicinity of the “Island” in Albouystown when he was shot. “As soon as he come off the CG he was riding, a tall, fine Negro man dressed in all back shot him and when Rayburn fell to the ground, the man went over him and fired about six to seven bullets after,” the woman said, recounting what family members were told by the eyewitness, who had run to Harvey’s aid after the gunman fled the scene. As he bled profusely, the miner begged the eyewitness to call his family members, but, by the time, they arrived at the scene, he had already been rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital. “When we went to the hospital, he was critical but the doctors managed to stabilise him: he went to the theatre breathing, they almost got out all of the bullets except for one to his neck… I left there about three o’clock,” the woman recalled. Harvey, however, succumbed to his injuries subsequently.The only thing that was missing from his person was his cellular phone. Family members said they were at a loss as to the motive behind the shooting. Harvey leaves to mourn his wife and one-month-old baby.
Back in March 2012, Justice Franklyn Holder had freed Harvey who was accused of killing Samantha Belle in a robbery/ murder in 2011, after the prosecution had failed to make out a prima facie case against him.
