A well-known businessman who had operated a liquor store at Durban and Chapel Streets in Lodge, Georgetown among other places of business has been killed during a daring robbery that occurred on Boxing Night at that Durban and Chapel Street business premises.
Dead: Shimron Adams, aka “Shem”
Shimron Adams, known as ‘Shem’, of Lot 129 Macaw Drive, Kaneville, East Bank Demerara, lost his like after being attacked at about 23:40h by two suspects who were reportedly wearing surgical face masks; one of them was armed with a handgun, Police have confirmed.
According to Adams’s 29-year-old fiancée, at around 21:30h on Boxing Night, she went to Adams’s business place. She said that, at that time, the businessman was wearing a gold finger ring and one gold band, and had a small bag hanging on his shoulder. At about 23:30h, Adams closed his business place and started to pack items into a freezer.
About ten minutes later, Adams opened the shutter for them to leave from the bottom flat, and according to the woman, in the blink of an eye, the two suspects entered the building via the same shutter and ordered them to lie on the ground, and they complied. The unarmed suspect then took off the businessman’s gold band and finger ring, and ordered him to get up, which he did.
She said the suspect then held onto the businessman’s shoulder bag and pulled at it, but Adams continued to hold onto the bag to prevent the suspect from taking it.
The suspect who was armed with the firearm then discharged a round at Adams, which struck him in his right abdomen. He fell to the ground and remained unconscious until he was rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead.
The body is presently lying at the said hospital’s mortuary, awaiting a postmortem examination.
The business place where the robbery and murder occurred
The scene was processed by ranks from CID Headquarters, and one 9mm spent shell and one warhead were recovered. The warhead and spent shell have been sealed and lodged.
The area was canvassed for CCTV cameras which had seen and captured when the suspects went to the business place, and when they left on a black and white XR motorcycle. The suspects escaped south onto Chapel Street, west onto Princess Street, and south onto St Stephen’s Street, Charlestown, where they were last seen.
“He doesn’t deserve this”
When Guyana Times visited the family on Tuesday, the late Shimron Adams’s aunt, Maylene Simon, said she was at home when she learned of her nephew’s death.
“I was at home in my bed when my son told me to get up and sit down. I kept asking him what happened, and he told me that Shimron get robbed and they shoot him. I asked him if they killed he, and he tell me no. So, I went to my phone and I went on Facebook, and I saw a businessman shot and killed, and I started panicking,” this aunt detailed. “I called a taxi till from Grove. When I came here, they had already removed the body,” she said.
According to Simon, Adams, who had been a father of one, had been operating the liquor store for about a year. She said he was working through the holidays just to raise enough money to expand his fish shop, which he was planning to move from Camp Street to the Durban and Chapel Streets vicinity.
“He worked Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and was going home. He was going home, I heard, when they said two girls came into the shop, and I don’t know what else happened… He was in the process of removing the business on Camp Street to this location. He was going the extra mile to make the little extra money to fund the expenses.”
The woman said that, so far, they do not suspect anyone as having committed the crime, since, according to their knowledge, he had never received any threats since he started the business.
“They said two strange persons…to our knowledge he never received any threats. Shimron was a very loving and caring person, and I don’t know how people can be so heartless, because he worked for whatever he wanted. So, for him to work so hard and put in all that extra money, for them to just come and do that to him…”
“They took his money, they took his jewellery, and still turn back and took his life? He doesn’t deserve this…his mom doesn’t live here, she came for the holidays, and this is what she has to go back and leave. His mom is taking it really hard, because she keeps saying her heart is hurting,” the woman explained.
Family members have said they are hoping the suspects who committed the act are found soon, so that they can feel the full brunt of the law. (G9)
