By Adam Kramer
At a moving traditional Hindu ceremony Monday, family and friends said goodbye to James Seecoomar and his son, Leonard, five days after they were murdered execution-style in their Jamaica home as a 4-year-old child watched.
James Seecoomar Jr., 32, has been charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon in the March 27 shooting death of his father, James, 65, and his brother, Leonard, 35, said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. He said Seecoomar allegedly shot his father and brother in the head after an argument at their home at 171-24 Liberty Ave. around 8:30 a.m.
“The defendant, during a family dispute, is alleged to have fired gunshots, which mortally wounded his father and brother,” Brown said. “Fortunately, his nephew, his deceased brother’s son, who was inside the house when the shootings occurred, somehow escaped injury.”
Police said they went to the house after receiving a call of a burglary in progress, but there was no sign of forced entry.
A source said the police found James Seecoomar lying face down in the living room in a puddle of blood and Leonard Seecoomar slumped on the couch. Both men were declared dead at the scene at 8:57 a.m. Leonard’s 4-year-old son, who was in the home during the shooting, was not injured.
If convicted, Seecoomar Jr. could be sentenced to the death penalty or life in jail. The district attorney has a 120-day waiting period to decide whether or not he will seek the death penalty.
At an emotional standing-room-only service at the Dowd Funeral Home at 165-20 Hillside Ave. in Jamaica more then 200 people, including a large extended Indo-Guyanese family, bid farewell to two men who had had a lasting impact on their lives.
“I know we came here to mourn our brother, friend and nephew,” said Hyacinth Stevens, a childhood friend of James Seecoomar Sr. in Guyana. “But we also need to celebrate the lives of our brother, James, and nephew Leonard. “His life, for those fortunate to have known him, was a bright shining example to all of us.
“No one can say anything bad about him,” she continued. “He was an inspiration to all of us.”
In search of a better life, James Seecoomar Sr., a retired restaurant supply salesman, took his family and emigrated from Guyana to the United States more than 25 years ago. A few years after arriving in Queens, the family settled in their Jamaica home.
“They were a very nice family and there was never a problem,” said a neighbor who did not want to give her name last Thursday. “It is a shock and I still can’t get over it. They were nice and kept to themselves.”
A man who worked next door to the Seecoomars and asked to remain anonymous agreed with the neighbor. He said there was never any sign of fighting among family members and the family was very quiet.
He said the father was an easygoing person “who wouldn’t hurt a fly. The son was the same as the father. I think he took after the father.”
Neville Seecoomar said the death of his brother James Seecoomars Sr. and nephew Leonard has left him and his family filled with a deep sense of loss. What helps to stave off some off the hurt, he said, is to look at how the two men lived their lives and touched everyone who came to pay respects.
He said his brother had nurtured his immediate family — his wife Edna, his five sons, three daughters, five granddaughters, seven grandsons, three sisters and seven brothers.
“I never expected this day would come,” said Seecoomars Sr.’s visibly distraught eldest daughter, Shirley. “Now I have to stand here and talk.”
She said her father was a giving man who was always there for the family. Shirley said she would be hard-pressed to remember a time when she had asked her father for something that she did not get.
She told the crowd gathered in the funeral home that the last time she saw her father was two Sundays ago when he dropped some things off and could not stay to talk because her mother was cooking. He wanted to make sure that she did not make a mess in the stove.
“He was in the process of cleaning the stove,” she screamed, “when he was killed — murdered.”
Seecoomar’s son-in-law, Ram, said James was like a father to him the minute he joined the family in 1987.
“It was like I had two fathers,” he said. “He did so much good stuff for this family.”
Another of James Sr.’s daughter, Annette, said she did not know what she would do without her father. She voiced concern for the grandchildren who will not be privileged to grow up with her father and brother.
“They are my hand and my foot,” she said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
