Police are searching for the killer of Sean Narain, who was shot dead on the Windsor Forest seawall early Sunday morning.

Narain was killed in front of his ex-girlfriend, Shani Achee, who was spared by the assailant/robber who happened upon the unsuspecting couple. By late afternoon yesterday, no arrests had been made and investigations were still ongoing.

Achee was the last person who saw Narain alive.

Narain, 22, of 86 Bella Dam, Pouderoyen, West Bank Demerara, had returned home hours before his death after spending a week in East Canje with his grandmother.

It was about 9.30 pm on Saturday when he returned, hurriedly changed his shoes and put on his leather jacket before he explained that his employer, Sheldon McDonald, needed him to work.

Narain was in Georgetown with his boss when he learnt Achee was waiting for him at the Crane Village Xaymaca Club, where he did odd jobs.

Although the relationship between Achee and Narain ended in January, they were still friends and would chat, according to her.

She said she wanted to see him that night as she had not seen him for a while. She did not know he had just returned from Berbice. Apart from talking, she said, she was also interested in retrieving a few items of hers that he still had.

It was almost fifteen minutes to midnight when Narain met her at the club. They sat together and talked until just before 2 am, when the club finally closed. But she said Narain wanted to talk some more so it was decided they would go to the Windsor Forest seawall which was the nearest place that they could think of. They arrived there around 2 am, took off their shoes and sat on the wall, both facing the water.

She said they had been talking for about 30 minutes when Narain turned around and noticed a man on a bicycle. The man shone a torchlight on their faces, blinding them. He asked the couple what they were doing and then pulled out a gun.

"What kind of fake gun is that?" she recalls Narain asking the man after he drew the small silver weapon.

Convinced the weapon was only a toy he approached the man, who fired off a shot before trying to get to Achee. Narain moved in front of her to shield her from the man when the second bullet hit him.

Narain collapsed and told the robber to take whatever he wanted.

The man removed what he could from his victim's pockets before turning his attention to Achee.

"He asked me where I was from and I fooled him, I told him I was from right around there. He then told me to hand over my ring," she recalled.

But she said instead of taking her ring, the gunman panicked and rode off into the heart of the village.

Achee propped Narain up and asked him if he was alright. Although he claimed that he was she put him to rest on the ground while she went to the main road for help.

"I was panicked. I didn't know what to do. I ran to the road and made a phone call to the police station. I told them to come quick and they said they were coming. But they were taking long. I tried to stop a car but nothing would stop. I went back the first time and he was still breathing [but] he was struggling for air. I started to give him air from my mouth..."

Still unsure about what to do next, she ran back to the road to try again to stop a car. But no one stopped and she tried instead to get an ambulance from the West Demerara Regional Hospital. But she was told that she had to call the police station before anything could be done.

Luckily, a taxi driver, who she knew, was passing at the time and she managed to flag him down. He was transporting a passenger but promised to return as quickly as he could. She said in the meantime she ran back to Narain to get him ready to go to the hospital. "I went back and he was barely breathing. I go to give him air again and that is when he stopped breathing. He stopped breathing."

She did not know whether he was dead or not, but after a while the car returned and they took him to the hospital. He was pronounced dead on arrival. It was there that she first saw the wound that Narain sustained near the base of his abdomen.

A post mortem examination performed on Narain's body yesterday confirmed he was shot at close range.

"He came late. Death was waiting for him but he didn't know it," his mother, Angela said. "This is strange. We are close, as mother and son. Even closer than he is with his father. Sometimes I fear for him. When he goes out late I tell him that something will happen to him. He had big plans to go abroad next month."