Acquaintances express shock at shooting deaths in Guyanese man's family

GEORGETOWN, GUYANA - Acquaintances and former co-workers expressed shock Wednesday at the shooting deaths of a Guyanese man, his wife and three sons at their home in Georgia. <br> <br> Police in suburban Atlanta said they were treating the case as an apparent murder-suicide. Autopsies showed that Ian Willabus carried out the slayings, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in Thursday&#39;s editions. <br> <br> In the family&#39;s apartment Tuesday, police found the bodies of Willabus, 33, a freelance writer for CNN International, his 32-year-old wife, Diane, and three young sons. <br> <br> The boys, ages 3, 5 and 10, were from the man&#39;s previous marriage, and Willabus had recently brought them from Guyana. <br> <br> Willabus worked in the north-coast South American country as a journalist in the 1990s, first for national radio and later as a reporter and anchor for state-run Guyana Television and Broadcasting Company. <br> <br> ``He was one of our better anchors,&#39;&#39; said Martin Goolsaran, general manager of Guyana Television. ``I never looked at him in that light. I&#39;m shocked.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Neighbors and acquaintances said Willabus left Guyana about five years ago to work as a flight attendant on the now-defunct Guyana Airways. He later settled in Atlanta. <br> <br> Rawle Dundas, a close friend who once worked with him as a flight attendant, said Willabus was regarded as bright and articulate, though he had a temper. <br> <br> ``I sometimes counseled him about life and controlling his temper,&#39;&#39; Dundas said. <br> <br> Willabus last visited Guyana in late December, when he covered the funeral of former President Desmond Hoyte. Colleagues said he also was preparing a piece for CNN on a recent rise in crime in Guyana. <br> <br> Willabus had been writing freelance for CNN and ``contributed frequently on a broad array of subjects,&#39;&#39; CNN spokesman Nigel Pritchard said. <br> <br> His three children left Guyana in early December to join him in the United States, Dundas said. <br> <br> Relatives, who declined to be interviewed at length, said Atlanta police are in contact with his first wife, Michelle Willabus, the mother of the three children. She wasn&#39;t immediately available for comment. <br> <br> DeKalb County police said officers responded to a disturbance call last month at the apartment, where Willabus and his current wife had been arguing.