Still trying to make sense of her father grabbing three guns and shooting down four persons including two police officers before he himself was killed, the eldest daughter of the gunman Deryck Kanhai remains in a state of disbelief that the man she loved and called father would have such a violent streak.
The eldest of his six children from two marriages, Charmina Kanhai lives in Columbia, Missouri with her own family and other siblings.
In her first media interview, the young woman told News Source that her father was a loving and caring man who looked out for his family all of the time. She said she has never seen the side of her father that would pick up a gun and take the lives of innocent people.
“He was the best friend anyone could ever ask for. Like my grandfather, he had a big heart and was very caring. He took care of everyone around him. A lot of people admired him and that is the man we knew as Derrick Kanhai. Not the man who held that gun and did what he did. We don’t know that man.”
Fighting back tears, Charmina Kanhai explained that she last spoke to her dad on Tuesday morning, just hours before he began his rampage and nothing seemed strange with him.
Asked if he showed any signs of depression or signs that something was wrong, she explained that they had no way of knowing from thousands of miles away, adding that “he talked to everyone on the same day in the morning and he seemed fine. He sounded fine, so there was no way for us to know, and we really wished that we could have helped him”.
On Tuesday afternoon, just after 1:30, gold miner Deryck Kanhai began a murderous rampage at his Middle Street, Georgetown home. He first shot and killed taxi dispatcher Vanessa Williams and passerby Hugh Bonny Paul.
He retreated to his three storey property and continued a shoot out with the police for three hours. At the end of that shoot out, two police officers Sherwin Pantlitz and Michael Forde were also shot and killed by the gunman and he died in a hail of gunfire from the police.
The man’s heart-broken daughter extended sympathy to the family of the persons who were killed. She said “we really wished we could have helped stopped this”, adding that her family’s prayers are with the families of the four persons who were killed.
She said her father was alone in Guyana. His mother and sister left the country last Wednesday to be in the United States for medical reasons and the entire family remains in shock over what took place.
Through tears, Charmina Kanhai told News Source that the family is in shock and disbelief and pain. She said that they knew that he “was not okay and that he was alone and he needed help and there was no one there to help him or to talk to him. He was alone. No family and no friends”.
Responding to reports that her father may have been going through some love problems that led to his actions, the young woman said she just does not know. She said she is aware that he was seeing someone and that the woman walked away from the relationship recently but she is doubtful that it would take him such a long time to react to that break up.
The family she said is trying to be strong and hold it together. While she lives with her mother and siblings in the United States, her father’s second wife and three other children live in Venezuela and she thanks all of the persons who have expressed sympathy to her family on the tragedy.
With her siblings sitting quietly in the background, Charmina said they are all hurting and are truly sorry for the relatives of the victims.
“We know its painful because we are feeling that pain too”, she said.
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