Kevon Felmine

Just two weeks af­ter San Fer­nan­do handy­man Roopchan Har­riper­sad was re­leased from prison, he was mur­dered with a sin­gle bul­let to the head.But al­though he died in the qui­et com­mu­ni­ty of De Ver­teuil Street, Ram­bert Vil­lage, no one heard the gun­shot that killed the 41-year-old Har­riper­sad.Nand­lal Seemu­n­gal went to Har­riper­sad's wood­en shack, be­hind a bam­boo patch at the end of the street. Af­ter call­ing and search­ing, he found Har­riper­sad in the bush with a large hole in his head.

Seemu­n­gal told po­lice, led by Supt An­tho­ny James, ASP Robert Williams, In­sp Don Ga­jad­har and PC Sil­van Chap­man, he had hired Har­riper­sad to do work at his home and when he did not show up he de­cid­ed to check on him.Crime scene in­ves­ti­ga­tors found Har­riper­sad had been shot at the back of the head.Po­lice were un­sure of the time of the mur­der but Har­riper­sad's fa­ther, Boyie Har­riper­sad, said he last saw his son around 11 pm Sun­day.Speak­ing at his home a few hous­es away, he said Har­riper­sad had just fin­ished dig­ging a drain at a client's home and a friend had dropped him off at the junc­tion to buy bread.Po­lice said Har­riper­sad had been con­vict­ed sev­er­al times for lar­ce­ny and mar­i­jua­na pos­ses­sion but was not known to be vi­o­lent.

Al­though the mur­der has left the com­mu­ni­ty in shock, Har­riper­sad's moth­er Dol­ly had mixed emo­tions, say­ing she and her son had not spo­ken in years.

With a stressed look on her face as she sat in her front porch, Dol­ly said her son had stolen mon­ey and jew­el­ry from her and sev­er­al neigh­bours even when he lived at her house and would curse and as­sault her when­ev­er she con­front­ed him."About ten times he went to jail. Yes, I used to be fright­ened but I nev­er told him to go from here. When­ev­er you talked to him, he would get on and leave. He put him­self out," Dol­ly said.De­spite liv­ing in fear of Har­riper­sad, the sec­ond of her sev­en chil­dren, his death brought no re­lief, on­ly sad­ness."I wouldn't feel re­lieved at all. He was usu­al­ly good with every­body around here but from small, I could not con­trol him. Since he was go­ing to school he gave trou­ble," she said.