‘I thought it was a bag’By RICHARDSON DHALAI Saturday, February 23 2013
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Bar owner Visham Sieunarine. ...
WHEN doubles vendor Ben Singh got out of his house early on Thursday morning to prepare his cart for the day’s sales, he spotted what he first thought was a bag on top of a concrete table outside the nearby Steps Bar in Dumfries Road, Rambert Village. The “bag” was on the same table that Singh usually sells his doubles.
But on closer inspection, Singh realised the “bag” was really the severed head of Learie Ceballo.
“In all my fifty-three years of life on this earth, I have never seen anything like this. The sight of a man’s head on the table, turned up my insides,” Singh said during an interview outside his home yesterday.
Opposite Singh’s home yesterday, the bar was opened for business with several patrons enjoying a cold beer at the bar which on Thursday was closed, cordoned off with ‘police caution’ tape and considered a crime scene. Since the gruesome discovery, Singh has relocated his doubles stand to the front of his home.
Singh spotted Ceballo’s head at about 6 am on an outdoor concrete table in the smoking area of Step Restaurant and Bar in Rambert Village, La Romaine. At the time, residents including school children were walking along the sidewalk nearby.
Ceballo’s body was found hours later in an abandoned cane field several miles from where his decapitated head was left on the table.
“At first I thought it was a bag. It was only when I opened the gate and was about to go outside I noticed it was no bag, it was the head of a man. I just freeze on the spot. I then called out to my next door neighbour.
“I called him and he went over to see if it was really a head. My neighbour called out saying it was really a man’s head. We then called the bar owner,” Singh said adding that a lot of passersby took out their cellular phones and took photos and video images of the head.
Bar owner Visham Sieunarine yesterday said that he arrived at his businessplace at the same time that police officers arrived. “It is really disturbing what we have witnessed here. But I have to open back up my businessplace today. We have to make a living,” Sieunarine said.
“It really don’t have much more to say except that we just have to be careful,” Sieunarine said, adding, “they just chose to put that head there. I don’t know why. But once you have nothing to do with what happened...you just have to go on because that kind of thing happening all over the country.”
Resident, Stanley Ruiz said he saw the severed head at 6 am when he went to put out the garbage. “I too thought it was a bag but I did not go to investigate. It was only when my wife called me later to say there was a head near to where we living, that I realise the bag was really a head. I living here 46 years now and this is a first for me,” Ruiz said.
Asked if he was afraid to live in Rambert Village following this shocking murder, Ruiz shook his head. “I put my trust in the Lord,” Ruiz said noting that with the establishment of several bars in the district, a number of “unsavory characters” are now liming until all hours of the morning.
“It’s not nice what is going on in the country. I really don’t know what is happening,” Ruiz said. Another resident John Seetal, 67, said he too did not go to see the head but noted the gallery of his home is obliquely facing the bar and he had a good view of all the activity in the area when the police arrived.
“Something must be done about this crime situation. This cannot continue. Everyday it seems to be getting worse,” he said. Up to late yesterday, no arrest had been made by police and investigations are continuing.
