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Barbarity!
Masked man boasts after murdering woman cop, tries to rape her daughter
MARK CUMMINGS, Observer senior reporter cummingsm@jamaicaobserver.com
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Deneise Donaldson, who had dinner at Venet Guthrie's home a few hours before her untimely death, mourns the killing of the district constable yesterday. (Photos: Alan Lewin)
KINGSVALE, Hanover - A masked gunman brutally murdered a woman district constable inside her house here just after midnight yesterday then tried to rape her 19-year-old daughter before fleeing with the victim's service revolver and handbag.
The vicious killing immediately drew condemnation from National Security Minister Colonel Trevor MacMillan, the slain cop's colleagues, as well as scores of residents of Kingsvale, where the constable had lived all of her life.
GUTHRIE. murdered in her house
"It is really a heinous act and demonstrates that hard-working police officers are continually being targeted by criminals," MacMillan said.
"Any attack on law enforcement personnel is an attack on law and order and will not go unnoticed," the minister warned.
The Opposition People's National Party, the Police Federation and the constabulary's director of communication, Karl Angell, also condemned the murder.
"We are appalled at the barbarity of the act," said Angell. "It just goes to show how callous these gunmen have become."
The Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) reported that about 12:30 am the masked man broke into 39-year-old Venet Guthrie's house through a window and held her up at gunpoint. The CCN said "the gunman came across her police identification card and loaded service revolver while searching the room and commented on her being a police officer. He then shot her several times, killing her on the spot, and escaped with her handbag and service revolver".
As news of the incident spread throughout the parish, where Guthrie worked for more than six years, several of her colleagues, relatives and community members rushed to the house.
Guthrie's niece, Shannakay Gray, who was among those early at the murder scene, told the Observer that her aunt was shot two times in her face and in her neck. Her 19-year-old daughter was in bed when the incident occurred.
"The gunman forced open one of the back windows, came through the passage and then went into the bedroom," said Gray. Judith (as Guthrie was also known) saw the man, jumped up and grabbed him and the two of them started to wrestle."
She said that it was during the tussle that the hoodlum shot her aunt.
Gray, tears streaming down her face, said that the masked man told the cop's daughter: "Look, yu si seh mi a real killer," before he marched her outside at gunpoint and demanded to have sexual intercourse with her.
Gray said her cousin, however, told the masked gunman that she was menstruating. He then ordered her to "run away".
Yesterday, the daughter, who was being consoled by her aunt, Sandra Watson, and other relatives at a nearby house in the community, found it extremely difficult to relate her ordeal to the Observer.
"Him kill mi mother, now mi have no more mother to talk to; mi never dream that this could happen; she never do anybody anything," she said softly with tears running down her already soaked cheeks.
Residents described Guthrie as an easy-going person who was always ready to assist anyone.
"She don't deserve to die that way, she was a very nice person. Anything that I want she always help mi out with it. She couldn't be nicer," said Deneise Donaldson, who had dinner at Guthrie's home a few hours before her untimely death.
Several policemen assigned to the Lucea Police Station described Guthrie as very approachable and popular.
Up to press time, investigators probing the parish's latest homicide said they had no leads and were yet to establish a motive for the brutal killing.
Masked man boasts after murdering woman cop, tries to rape her daughter
MARK CUMMINGS, Observer senior reporter cummingsm@jamaicaobserver.com
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Deneise Donaldson, who had dinner at Venet Guthrie's home a few hours before her untimely death, mourns the killing of the district constable yesterday. (Photos: Alan Lewin)KINGSVALE, Hanover - A masked gunman brutally murdered a woman district constable inside her house here just after midnight yesterday then tried to rape her 19-year-old daughter before fleeing with the victim's service revolver and handbag.
The vicious killing immediately drew condemnation from National Security Minister Colonel Trevor MacMillan, the slain cop's colleagues, as well as scores of residents of Kingsvale, where the constable had lived all of her life.
GUTHRIE. murdered in her house"It is really a heinous act and demonstrates that hard-working police officers are continually being targeted by criminals," MacMillan said.
"Any attack on law enforcement personnel is an attack on law and order and will not go unnoticed," the minister warned.
The Opposition People's National Party, the Police Federation and the constabulary's director of communication, Karl Angell, also condemned the murder.
"We are appalled at the barbarity of the act," said Angell. "It just goes to show how callous these gunmen have become."
The Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) reported that about 12:30 am the masked man broke into 39-year-old Venet Guthrie's house through a window and held her up at gunpoint. The CCN said "the gunman came across her police identification card and loaded service revolver while searching the room and commented on her being a police officer. He then shot her several times, killing her on the spot, and escaped with her handbag and service revolver".
As news of the incident spread throughout the parish, where Guthrie worked for more than six years, several of her colleagues, relatives and community members rushed to the house.
Guthrie's niece, Shannakay Gray, who was among those early at the murder scene, told the Observer that her aunt was shot two times in her face and in her neck. Her 19-year-old daughter was in bed when the incident occurred.
"The gunman forced open one of the back windows, came through the passage and then went into the bedroom," said Gray. Judith (as Guthrie was also known) saw the man, jumped up and grabbed him and the two of them started to wrestle."
She said that it was during the tussle that the hoodlum shot her aunt.
Gray, tears streaming down her face, said that the masked man told the cop's daughter: "Look, yu si seh mi a real killer," before he marched her outside at gunpoint and demanded to have sexual intercourse with her.
Gray said her cousin, however, told the masked gunman that she was menstruating. He then ordered her to "run away".
Yesterday, the daughter, who was being consoled by her aunt, Sandra Watson, and other relatives at a nearby house in the community, found it extremely difficult to relate her ordeal to the Observer.
"Him kill mi mother, now mi have no more mother to talk to; mi never dream that this could happen; she never do anybody anything," she said softly with tears running down her already soaked cheeks.
Residents described Guthrie as an easy-going person who was always ready to assist anyone.
"She don't deserve to die that way, she was a very nice person. Anything that I want she always help mi out with it. She couldn't be nicer," said Deneise Donaldson, who had dinner at Guthrie's home a few hours before her untimely death.
Several policemen assigned to the Lucea Police Station described Guthrie as very approachable and popular.
Up to press time, investigators probing the parish's latest homicide said they had no leads and were yet to establish a motive for the brutal killing.
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