The man who was shot dead following a high-speed chase by members of the Guyana Police Force in the wake of the hijacking of a car by armed bandits on Friday night, has been identified as Gregory McClennon, 34, of no fixed place of abode,
A release issued by the police yesterday said that McClennon had previously been charged with rape and robbery under arms in 1995.
The deceased man was part of a gang of five who exchanged gunfire with the police in Water and Commerce Streets after the latter had received reports that a car had been hijacked and its occupants were making their way to a city bank. Four members of the gang escaped, although informed sources told Stabroek News that one of them is thought to have sustained gunshot wounds.
Meanwhile, the driver of the car who was thrown out behind the Eccles Industrial site by the bandits suffered no life-threatening injuries, and the guards in the area are calling on the police to patrol there more frequently, as they feel it is a safe haven for bandits and that it provides an escape route through the canefields to places on the East Coast and East Bank of Demerara.
A police source yesterday told Stabroek News that the driver of the car – PGG 1363 – a private hire car, had been approached by a man at the comer of Barr and Alexander Streets in Kitty where he had been parked. The man told him that he was going to the cinema but before that he had to pick up his girlfriend in Dowding Street, Kitty.
He was directed to Dowding Street where he stopped to “pick up the girl.” While the passenger was talking to her, the driver reported that someone had placed a gun to his head and had told him to get into the back seat and keep his head down. The police release said that they dumped him on the floor, in the rear of the car before proceeding to Eccles backdam behind the Eccles Industrial Estate.
Guards at the site last evening related to this newspaper that shortly after 9:00 pm they had seen a man running in their direction and screaming for help. The area is desolate and because they feared it might have been someone trying to get them away from their posts they waited until he came closer and noted that he seemed disoriented “to the point of being hysterical.”
The guards said that the man had been badly beaten by the bandits who had either “cuffed out or kicked out his teeth.” His eyes had also been swollen. They quoted him as saying that in the backdam the bandits had debated as to whether they should kill him or leave him, two of them being in favour of killing, and two not, as he had cooperated with them. One of them, they said, had volunteered to guard him, but in the end they had bound his hands and feet, thrown him out of the car and sped away. The guards said that the bandits might have used the unlit backroad as they did not hear the vehicle entering or leaving.
They also recounted that the driver had claimed that the bandits had taken away his National Bank of Industry and Commerce ATM and national identification cards, and that they had beaten him so that he would reveal his pin number to them. The driver managed to release himself and after briefly relating to the guards what had happened they allowed him to make a telephone call to the police before going to the Ruimveldt Police Station. Stabroek News understands that all the police on patrol were alerted and the car was spotted heading into the city. Others were alerted and they, too, headed in the direction of the Water Street branch of NBIC.
It would appear, a police source said, that when the men realised that they were being followed down Robb Street, the driver of the hijacked car drove up the one-way street and turned into Commerce Street in the vicinity of the Mahaica mini-bus terminal.
An eyewitness on the scene on Friday night told Stabroek News that the car, “came up the one way” with the Impact police on its tail. He said that it had “hugged the comer of the street” as it turned into the Mahaica bus park, “most likely to evade the police,” but then had spun out of control and crashed into a stall on the northern side of the road. The crash stalled the vehicle. “Everybody bailed put… and ran for cover,” he said. It was noted that the place was relatively dark. No one could say in which direction the bandits had fled as the area was congested at the time. As the bandits tried to escape from the police, both sides opened fire, sending vendors still plying their trade or guarding their goods, diving for cover.
The congestion, too, the eyewitness said may have also hindered the police. He said that by the time he came out of hiding, other police vehicles were on the scene. There was also a crowd of people a short distance away waiting for mini-buses going up the East Coast Demerara Highway. The man, who was found in the driver’s seat, was taken out and placed in a police vehicle. He was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
When Stabroek News arrived on the scene there was blood splattered on the ground and the police were retrieving a number of bullets and warheads. The area had also been cordoned off.
Police are currently on the alert for five armed prisoners who escaped from the Georgetown Prison on Mashramani Day, February 23. Informed sources are of the view that the bandits involved in the shoot-out at the Mahaica bus park may have been associated with the gang of escapees.
That gang is believed to have grown in numbers since the jailbreak.
Last Sunday, Albouystown businessman Errol ‘Taps’ Butcher was gunned down in America Street a block away from Friday night’s shooting. Police are currently conducting investigations into Butcher’s murder. According to the police, several persons have been questioned including a teenager who had found Butcher’s cell phone. (Miranda La Rose)
