Police still probing shooting of Nations’ Director, threats

As the Guyana Police Force continue to probe the shooting of School of the Nations’ Director, Dr Brian O’Toole, they are yet to make any headway into finding the shooter as well as the person behind the social media posts who goes by the alias “Kira”.
Crime Chief, Lyndon Alves told Guyana Times that the probe is still ongoing.
Initially, the police had questioned four persons – both current and former students – in relation to the January 27 shooting of the school’s principal at his Bel Air Promenade, Greater Georgetown, home and according to Alves, no other person of interest has since been questioned.
However, he noted that they are awaiting the return of Dr O’Toole to further interview him about the incident which followed several threats against the school on Facebook made by “Kira” (meaning killer), which is the alias of the main character in “Death Note” – a Japanese manga series that was later adapted into films.
Last week, there were reports circulating on social media which suggest that the person behind the alias “Kira” was identified as the son of a prominent lawyer while alleging too that he was part of an eight-member gang which include two sons of Government Ministers.
The post further claimed that the suspect was arrested in the US.
However, the GPF Crime Chief told this newspaper that he is unaware of such developments.
“The police are not investigating anything on social media so we are not aware of those claims,” Alves said. In fact, when asked, he noted that they are still trying to ascertain the identity of the person behind “Kira”.
As Police try to trace “Kira”, Dr O’Toole, who is currently in the US receiving treatment after he was shot two times, once in each arm, has recalled something “bizarre” from the night of the shooting.
In a statement recently posted on the private institution’s Facebook page, the injured principal recounted that when he was shot, the perpetrator “did a bizarre dance” and when he related this to others, Dr O’Toole said he was referred to the dark video game, Fortnite.

“The dance on that evening looked as if it had been rehearsed from the very same video,” the principal stated.
Fortnite is a ‘battle royale’ style game in which up to 100 people compete at a single time in online matches to the death.
The Director posited that the key issue surely is that in such games, children and youth lose track of reality. As such, he noted parents should check to see if children are part of this dangerous cyber-world.
“At school, we can do our best to educate children about the terrible power of this nether-world but only parents can police their children’s phones, computers and other devices. The challenge is for us all but the urgency is very, very clear. We are creating a cyber-world that youth have never had to face in the past. If we learn no other lesson we, at least, need to consider the dangerous world that our children are entering in the name of entertainment,” Dr O’Toole asserted.
Bringing the issue closer to home, the injured principal noted that it is sad that one youth or a small group can hold a sizeable percentage of the country at ransom, in fear and apprehension.
Since Nations’ incident, there have been threats made to other institutions and as such, the Education Ministry along with the Police Force have beefed up security around the city.
Despite this, however, there was a bomb scare at the University of Guyana’s (UG) Turkeyen campus, Greater Georgetown. But a 25-year-old student, Sheneza Jafarally, has since been charged for the bomb threat that forced a shut down at the institution. She was remanded to prison.