Female taxi driver shot dead by hijackers…

Hijackers shot a female taxi driver in the mouth Friday night before making off with her car and leaving her to die at Ogle Public Road, East Coast Demerara.

Forty-two-year-old Seeraji Singh was shot by two men from her neighbourhood who had asked to be picked up from a Chinese restaurant at about 21:30hrs.

The sons of two of the Singh's family Success neighbours have since been held as the woman managed to identify her assailants to the police with her dying breath.

Singh, who ran a taxi service with her husband, was reportedly at home when she received a telephone call requesting a taxi at a restaurant not too far from the home.

The dead woman's eldest daughter, Indira Singh, said that after her mother made the pickup at the restaurant, she radioed home confirming the drop.

“While my mother was on her way to make the pickup a male person called two more times to find out why the car was taking so long. The last time the person specifically asked if it was my mother or father who was going to make the pickup,” Mrs. Singh's daughter said.

Indira said she kept checking with her mother since she did not normally make drops so late at night.

According to Indira, after a while, her mother told her that she was going to turn off the radio set since there was a police road block at Montrose.

According to Indira, it was normal for her mother to do so when encountering police roadblocks since she was operating from a private car.

“Before she turned off the radio I told her that there was another pickup in Montrose and she said that when she dropped off this set of passengers she was going to make that pickup,” the girl said.

That was the last time she spoke with her mother.

Indira explained that when Mrs. Singh failed to turn on her radio set again, the family began to get worried.

“My father and I tried to make contact with her several times, both on the radio and on the cell phone. One time the cell phone rang out while the other times it was busy. I even called the person who she was supposed to pick up in Montrose and they said that she never turned up there,” Indira said.

Indira said she received a call at about 23:30 hrs from GPHC saying that her mother was shot.

The family later learnt that a police patrol responding to a report of a robbery at a Bel Air gas station received a call to investigate a shooting in Ogle. They found Mrs. Singh still alive and lying on the road.

She succumbed about two hours later at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.

“We were told that even though my mother was shot in her mouth she managed to give the police our home number and the name of her assailants. When we reached the hospital she was bleeding from her mouth and every time she attempted to speak she began bringing up blood. So the doctor told us to let her rest. She died about 10 minutes after we arrived at the hospital,” the grieving daughter said.

Pawan Singh, husband of the dead woman, told Kaieteur News that their taxi service has been in operation for four years.

The husband said, as a rule, they would not pickup strangers, especially in the nights.

However, since they knew the two men, she agreed to take the late job.

Mr. Persaud added that he was not at home when the call came.

Meanwhile, an employee at the restaurant from which the call was made told Kaieteur News that two young men from the neighbourhood had paid to use the phone to call the taxi.

He said they called the taxi service three times.

Seeraji Singh has left to mourn three children aged 21, 14 and 11.

She was the daughter of Harry Prowell, a Guyanese athlete, who represented Guyana at the Olympics in 1963.

The car has not been recovered.

Sunday 02-12-2006