Van Beek shooting probe shifting to insurance industry –police source

As investigations continue into the shooting of Com-missioner of Insurance Maria van Beek the police have begun questioning persons in the insurance industry.

A police source told Stabroek News that ranks were up to yesterday questioning persons with an insurance background as they attempt to crack the case that would soon be a month old.

The source said that the police are working feverishly to solve the shooting and to bring the perpetrators to justice.

There is a fear that the attempt on van Beek’s life may become another of the many cold cases in Guyana. The source said that several persons in the insurance are being questioned.

Meanwhile, there has been no new development on the identity of the shooter or his accomplice or the motorcycle they had escaped on.

Two men were held days after the April 16 shooting but they were released after they were not identified in identity parades and since then investigators have been unable to come up with new leads that could locate the perpetrators of the brazen crime.

The gunman had approached van Beek’s car and fired a single shot just days after she had given a report to the High Court as the Judicial Manager of the troubled CLICO (Guyana).  The bullet hit her in her chest and she had to be hospitalised for several days.

Van Beek secured an order from the court in February to place CLICO (Guyana) under judicial management prior to the winding up of the company; she was also appointed Judicial Manager. The decision came following the move by the Bahamas Supreme Court to order the liquidation of CLICO (Baha-mas). CLICO (Bahamas) held 53% of the assets of CLICO (Guyana) at the end of 2007.

According to reports, van Beek was stuck in a long line of traffic at the junction of Lombard and Leopold streets during a heavy downpour when a gunman walked up to her vehicle and fired a single shot through the driver’s side window.

He jumped on a waiting motorcycle parked on Leopold Street and fled.