Father, son-in-law shot dead, another injured in Linden home invasion

A father and his son-in-law were shot dead while another relative was injured after they tried to fend off masked gunmen, who invaded their Wismar, Linden home during the wee hours of Saturday.

The dead men have been identified as Johnson Bowen, 87 and Manuel Dos Santos, 58, a gold miner, both of Block 22, Wismar, Linden.

Crime Chief, Wendell Blanhum, confirmed that investigators are probing the fatal shooting which occurred sometime between 04:00 hrs and 04:15 hrs.Police are on the hunt for three masked men, two of whom were armed with guns.
Reports are the dead men lived together with Dos Santos’ wife and three children.
The News Room understands that the wife told detectives that she and her husband were sleeping when she was awoken by noise coming from their living room.

Upon checking, the woman saw the three suspects tugging her elderly father while one of her sons, Valdeir Dos Santos was lying on the floor.

Upon hearing the commotion, the woman said her 20-year-old nephew, Denzil Roberts, who resides next door, came over to the house and choked one of the suspects who was at the time standing armed over Bowen and Valdeir.

As he was doing this, the News Room understands that Manuel got up lashed the other armed suspect to the head.

A scuffle then ensured between Denzil and Valdeir during which the suspects began to shoot indiscriminately at the roof.
Reports are that Manuel and Valdeir armed themselves with cutlasses and chopped the armed suspects.
Manuel then rushed through the back door chopping one of the suspects, who discharged several rounds in his direction causing him to collapse.

As they were escaping, the suspects continued to discharged several rounds.

Afterwards, Bowmen’s body was found lying in a crouching position in the living room.
Roberts was also injured during the commotion and was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) for emergency surgery.
It is suspected that the men invaded the house to carry out a robbery.
However, a relative told the News Room on Saturday that it is unclear at this time whether any valuables were stolen.
The relative said Manuel returned home from the mines on Sunday.
Investigations are ongoing.