Family still waits for justice for Courtney Crum-Ewing
Two years on, disappointment and pain continue to mar the lives of the parents of Courtney Crum-Ewing, who was murdered in what many believe was a politically-motivated hit.
About a dozen people gathered in front of the Office of the Attorney General after noon yesterday in commemoration of the second death anniversary of Crum-Ewing. The location is significant because for months leading up to his death, he had stood there alone in protest, demanding the resignation of then attorney general Anil Nandlall.
The source of Crum-Ewing’s disgust, which led to his protest action, was a taped telephone conversation between Nandlall and Kaieteur News reporter Leonard Gildarie that surfaced in October 2014. On the tape, Nandlall could be heard making inflammatory remarks and speaking of a female reporter in a derogatory manner.
On March 10th, 2015, 40year-old Crum-Ewing, a father of three, was gunned down in Diamond Housing Scheme on the East Bank Demerara while urging residents to vote at the upcoming May 11th elections.
“It’s the horror in realizing that public officials can be blatant in their sexism and get away with it; it’s a big joke and the supporters don’t care about it,” Vidyaratha Kissoon, who participated in the commemoration, stated.
“We got Minister [Volda] Lawrence backing up the councillor [Winston] Harding; it’s a whole set of madness we got going on in the public life and that is taking its toll, I think, on us,” Kissoon continued, while also going on to question the direction Guyana is heading in.
“… Because of him, that’s part of the reason why this government won the election and all of that, because people were horrified when that happened, because like we were at the end of the rope and it’s a damn shame that nothing has been really done to find out who really killed him,” writer Mosa Telford stated.
Crum-Ewing’s mother Donna Harcourt was too upset to offer a comment yesterday, saying she had just received further news relating to her son’s death, although she would not disclose the details.
Her husband, Eustace Harcourt, described the situation as disappointing, while stating that the perpetrators of his son’s death were known and roaming free.
He expressed hope that there would be a “clean out” of the court system and that the government would ensure that a proper investigation is conducted into his son’s death.
“And it’s just strange that the police force does go out and find some crime that they discover a man in the dump and they trace it till they find the righted people. Wah happen to this one? Because it’s political?
Because it’s who the perpetrators be? If you for law and order, law and order can’t just be for the ordinary poor man. You cannot stop crime if you only charge certain people,” he stated. “… All the perpetrators are still here walking about. All of them are still here; you see them daily pon the road, and it does hurt. It hurts very much… Two years have passed, it’s like there’s still a dark cloud hanging over me house. When them children wake pon a morning, you come out, you keep wondering wah gon eventually be the outcome of this.
As long as I am alive, I’m gonna pursue this. This is the second year, even if it meet the 202nd year, I’d be still here standing because justice got to prevail,” Harcourt stated further.
On August 7th, 2015, Regan Rodrigues, called “Grey Boy,” was charged with Crum-Ewing’s murder. This came after ballistics tests done on an illegal .32-calibre gun found at Rodrigues’ Georgetown residence was linked to the murder scene.
Rodrigues was charged with possession of the weapon after surrendering to police, whom he had managed to elude before his home was searched. But on January 11th, 2016 he was freed of this charge following a trial.
On September 14th, 2016, Rodrigues was also freed of the murder charge at the end of a preliminary inquiry, after Magistrate Judy Latchman found that no case had been made out against him.
Rajput Narine, an ex-bodyguard of Nandlall, had been taken into custody during investigations into the murder and though questioned, was released without charge.
His lawyer had said that although police told Narine he was being arrested in connection with the Crum-Ewing investigation, while in police custody he was never questioned about it. There was, however, a confrontation between Rodrigues and Narine.