A woman and her son have been brutally chopped to death by a prison escapee during a visit to their home at Saxacalli village in the Essequibo River.
Dead are 75-year-old Elizabeth Gomes and 49-year-old David Gomes, both late residents of Saxacalli and of Durban Street in Wortmanville, Georgetown. This crime took place between 17:00h and 20:00h on Friday, March 8, 2024, and was witnessed by David’s six-year-old son.
Since the family moved to the city, they would return very often to clean their house and surroundings at Saxacalli. However, their routine visit took a sinister turn when an unexpected visitor arrived at their doorstep. The suspect, later identified as prison escapee Akeem Wong, who reportedly escaped from the Mazaruni Prison on February 15, 2024, approached the Gomeses’ residence seeking food and directions.
Police have said that David Gomes’s six-year-old son related that at about 15:00h on the day in question, the suspect visited their home and requested something to eat, while at the same time asking for directions. He was given food, and also took a few drinks with the child’s father.
“The child also stated that he later saw the suspect (arm) himself with a cutlass and (deal) his father several chops about his body. His grandmother (Nellie) went to (her son’s) rescue, and she was also dealt several chops about her body,” the police release has stated.
The police have said that after committing the act, the suspect attempted to wash down the blood, but in the process, he heard a boat approaching, and he ran into the nearby bushes and made good his escape.
The police have also said the child told them that, during the ordeal, the suspect was chopped by his father.
The child, the police said, took his father’s cellular phone and sent a voice note to one of his father’s friends, who in turn contacted the police.
Police investigations have thus far revealed that prison escapee Akeem Wong was seen in the area at the location, and is allegedly the person who committed the murders. The scene was processed, and it was observed that both of the deceased were chopped multiple times to their heads and bodies. The child was removed from the scene, and the bodies were subsequently transported to the Bartica Hospital Mortuary.
Wong, called ‘Bin Laden’, a convict who was serving a 15-year sentence for rape, escaped from the Mazaruni Prison in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) in a brazen act on February 15. The Guyana Prison Service has said that Wong and another inmate, Gilbert Gill, were under the supervision of a prison officer, performing labour duties in a ‘wood bush’ when Wong requested permission to go defecate, and was granted same by the prison officer.
About five minutes later, a check was made for Wong, and it was discovered that he had gone missing. An alarm was raised, and law enforcement officials have widened the search perimeter around the area, but he has not been apprehended up until now.
Wong was 27 years old when he was convicted in 2020 for raping a 14-year-old girl. He pleaded guilty to the charge, which stated that on June 30, 2017, in the county of Demerara, he engaged in sexual penetration of the child.
A probation report had stated that Wong, a resident of Half Mile Wismar in Linden, Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice), had been associated with persons of unsavoury character, and had been involved in many delinquent activities.
According to the probation officer, Police records showed that Wong was wanted for a murder that occurred in Mabaruma, Region One (Barima-Waini), and he was arrested only in 2018 after a wanted bulletin had been issued for him.
The probation officer had informed the court that Wong had told her he had also previously been charged with break-and-enter and robbery, but he claimed those charges had been dismissed.
