By Isanella Patoir
The family of 16-year-old Shereeda Persaud is calling for a thorough investigation in the fatal four-vehicle accident at the Mahaica Bridge on Wednesday, which claimed her life.
The teen’s death has devastated her entire family and community; she was the only daughter for her parents.
“We need something clear from the Guyana Police Force, I think the Guyana Police Force murdered my niece…it is terrible for us.
“I need justice, I don’t want this to happen to any other family,” the teen’s uncle Tamesh Persaud told the News Room on Thursday.
Shereeda along with her boyfriend, Christopher Bhagwandat, 20, were killed during a high-speed chase by police ranks attached to the Mahaicony Police Station.
Shereeda was a fifth-form student of the Bush Lot Secondary School and was registered to write 11 subjects at this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams.
The young woman of Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice was the Minister of Home Affairs during the 2021 Youth Parliament. Her presentation at the Youth Parliament was on road safety where she pleaded with road users to follow the law.
Shereeda left her home on Wednesday like any regular day for school; she was wearing her school uniform and had promised her parents that she will attend her uncle’s birthday celebration after school.
But during her recess at school, Shereeda somehow managed to meet up with her boyfriend who was taking her to surprise his mother for her birthday.
“I am made to understand she did went in school, so apparently she left the school at 10 something or 9 something on a break time.
“Nobody know about the boyfriend,” Tamesh explained.
The family found out Shereeda had died hours after the accident occurred. They never imagined that she would have left school and travelled out of the region.
Tamesh revealed that after she did not show up for her uncle’s birthday, the family began to enquire about her whereabouts and soon learnt that she was involved in an accident. But even then, they did not think that she was the female in the accident at Mahaica.
“We living in Bath Settlement and this accident happen at Mahaica and we checked and didn’t see any accident in this area,” Tamesh said.
He said the family decided to visit the Fort Wellington Hospital to see if she was there.
“…them nurses say no accident happen in Region Five except Mahaica and I said well my niece can’t be in that accident because my niece at Bush Lot Secondary and that was 3 something,” Tamesh recalled.
He said they then started looking at the videos of the accident on social media and while they saw a female involved in the accident, Tamesh still did not believe it was his niece because she had left home attired in her school uniform.
The family was then informed that there was an unidentified body of a young girl at the Anthony’s Funeral Home.
“When I go there, it was my niece,” the tearful uncle said.
“Only last week she came by my mother and I met with her…any family member she meet, she would always greet them with a hug.”
The Guyana Police Force is yet to say why Shereeda and her boyfriend were being chased by the police ranks.
My deepest condolences to both the families on this senseless tragedy, but do not blame the police entirely. The police made a mistake by chasing the kid, but how are they to know why he ran? The young girl made a mistake skipping school to hang with her beau….kids make mistakes. Just a terrible calamity that should not have occurred and almost certainly both GPF and the young driver would do things different if they had the chance again.
Finger pointing and howling for justice is wrong and the blame is spread around.