By Travis Chase | HGP Nightly News|
ZEELUGT, EAST BANK ESSEQUIBO — Detectives attached to the Guyana Police Force’s elite Major Crimes Unit have made a significant breakthrough in the investigation into the horrific murder of seven-year-old Adriel Aftab Mohamed and the attempted murder of his 72-year-old great-aunt, Alima Itwari.
Police announced that a 23-year-old farmer from the Zeelugt New Housing Scheme area was arrested on Saturday following intensive, round-the-clock investigative field sweeps. The rapid apprehension comes less than 24 hours after the gruesome Friday morning assault shocked the West Demerara-Essequibo region.
Confronted with Video Evidence and Hand Wounds
According to senior security sources close to the investigation, the suspect allegedly cracked under intense interrogation and delivered a full confession, admitting to both the slaughter of the primary school student and the near-fatal stabbing of the elderly woman.
Detectives successfully cornered the suspect after confronting him with recovered digital surveillance footage harvested from nearby properties, which placed him directly at the scene of the crime. Additionally, forensic investigators tracking the suspect’s movements interviewed his employer, who revealed that the 23-year-old turned up for agricultural work on Friday morning with a fresh, visible wound on his hand. The suspect has since admitted to sustaining that injury while struggling to overpower the victims.
Clothing matching the description worn by the intruder during the home invasion was also recovered by field ranks. The garments, alongside the bloodstained kitchen knife found on the bed, have been dispatched to the Guyana Forensic Science Laboratory for immediate DNA profiling and analysis.
“He Was My Lifeline”: Grieving Father Recounts Final Hours
At the scene of the tragedy, the child’s father, Aftab Mohamed, fought back streaming tears as he described the devastating loss of a son he referred to as his absolute “lifeline.”
The grieving father explained that he operates as a hard-working single parent, striving daily to ensure his son wanted for nothing. He had temporarily left the child in the care of his great-aunt on Thursday night, intending to return to collect him early Friday morning to “run the road” together.
“Your son mean everything to me, you understand?” the father sobbed heavily outside the cordoned home. “I ripped me muscle to make sure he go to school as a single parent… I was coming to collect my grandson [son] this morning… then they call me, sister crying and tell me that somebody killed the man. Man on the ground see. I never imagined it would have been the last time I would have seen him alive.”
Case Formulated for Court Prosecution
An official autopsy conducted on Monday by state pathologists confirmed that little Adriel Mohamed died from a severe incised wound to the neck, with medical examiners noting evidence of both sharp and blunt-force trauma across the child’s body.
The suspect remains under heavy guard in police custody as case files are being actively processed by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Formal capital murder and attempted murder charges are expected to be read in the magistrate’s court within the coming hours. Meanwhile, his elderly relative remains under tight medical surveillance at the regional hospital as community leaders demand the maximum penalty under the law for the heinous act.
