Motive for killing waitress unclear; face of perpetrator captured on video

Last Updated on Monday, 25 August 2014, 4:52 by GxMedia

Police were not immediately clear what was the motive behind Saturday’s night’s shooting death of a waitress behind the counter of a city restaurant but investigators were quite optimistic that they would catch the perpetrator.

Commissioner of Police, Seelall Persaud confirmed that video surveillance footage obtained from Delicious Chinese Restaurant, D’urban and Haley Streets, Wortmanville has helped investigators to see the face of the assailant, but his name was not immediately known. “The footage is good but the suspect is not identified by name as yet,” Persaud told Demerara Waves Online News.

Police said 48-year old Debra Black was shot to her shoulder and neck before the gunman escaped on a waiting motorcycle. With no money reportedly stolen during the incident, police were not immediately sure what the motive for the killing was.

Investigators were also expected to use the recently acquired Advanced Fingerprint Information System (AFIS) to store and compare the fingerprints of the suspect whose hands were seen on the restaurant’s counter shortly before he fatally shot the mother of five.

At the Critchlow Street, Tucville, Georgetown home, saddened relatives lamented to a delegation from A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) the poor state of security although government has been boasting of spending huge sums of money on beefing up the operational capacity of the police force.

One of Black’s daughters complained bitterly that until now the owner of the restaurant had not contacted the family or paid the one week’s salary for which her mother had worked until the time of her death.

Although the woman worked at Delicious Restaurant for at least 11 years, the surviving family member said the restaurateur never deducted social security contributions to National Insurance Scheme.

A member of the APNU delegation, who was at a hairdressing salon opposite the restaurant, confirmed accounts by Black’s family members that the owners closed the door of the eatery despite repeated appeals by public spirited citizens who were willing to take the woman to a hospital.