Kojo Nnamdi’s Brother Shot and Killed in Guyana

WAMU has confirmed that Kojo Nnamdi’s brother, Hugh “Bonny” Paul, was killed in a shooting incident Tuesday in Nnamdi’s native country of Guyana. According to the Carib News Desk website, Paul was one of four people killed by a man who “went berserk” in the capital city of Georgetown. The other victims included two policemen and a woman described as a taxi dispatcher. CND reported that police killed the gunman.

Nnamdi, according to WAMU, is heading to Guyana, but before his departure he posted this statement on Facebook:

“My beloved older brother Hugh (Bonny) Paul, identified in this article as a taxi driver, was not. He was a retired civil servant. And he was killed while walking in his neighborhood on the street where he lived. I’ll be going to prepare a place for him, but his place in my heart, and in my life, is forever secure. He was the older brother who I mimicked as a child, which is why I bat left-handed to this day, because he was left-handed, and why I got interested in politics, and ideology, and jazz. If it is possible, he loved me more than I loved myself. I’ll continue to think of him the way I always have, every single day of my life. RIP big brother. . . .”

Nnamdi is expected to be away until November 25. WAMU communications manager Benae Mosby says that in his absence a variety of people will fill in on the daily Kojo Nnamdi Show.

Nnamdi, whose birth family name is Paul, is celebrating his 15th year with WAMU, which he spoke with us about only last week.