Police yesterday found a Beretta submachine gun and three magazines with 90 rounds at the home of an ex-policeman who was gunned down seconds after he had dropped off a female companion on Graham Street, Plaisance on Sunday night.
The dead man Orlando Edwards called ‘Lando’ of Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara also had in his possession a 9 mm pistol, which he was licensed to carry at the time of his death. He was 30 and was employed by a gold and diamond dealer.
It is not clear what is the motive for the brutal slaying of the ex-policeman who sustained some seven shots to his head and other parts of his body.
Relatives said that nothing was stolen from the car and the killers did not harm the young woman who was with Edwards. “They did not take anything and they did not shoot the girl,” one relative told Stabroek News.
Police in a statement said that around 20:30 hrs on Sunday, Edwards was fatally shot by two men armed with guns. Edwards, a former member of the Guyana Police Force, who was driving motorcar PJJ 930 had just dropped off a female acquaintance when the suspects drove up in another car exited and fired several shots in his direction, hitting him in his chest, the police statement said. He was rushed to the Georgetown Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Police said that ranks subsequently searched his person and recovered a 9 mm pistol with two magazines containing 25 rounds of matching ammunition, which he was licensed to carry. However, yesterday ranks conducted another search of Edwards’ residence at Cummings Lodge, and found one Beretta 9mm sub machine gun and three magazines containing 90 matching rounds. No one has been arrested.
His body is awaiting post-mortem as investigations continue, the police statement added.
Stabroek News was told that the young woman who was with Edwards said that at least one of the killers wore a knitted hat, which he had pulled over his face.
The dead man’s relatives said he was a good man, but admitted that they hardly saw him and wasn’t aware of what he was up to save to say that he was employed by a diamond dealer. Police detectives told this newspaper that the gunmen’s intentions were clear – they wanted to execute him. Spots of blood could be seen on the road at the scene when Stabroek News visited yesterday. Residents said they did not see the killers and the young woman who was with Edwards said she could not identify them.
This newspaper was told that Edwards was at the Georgetown seawalls on Sunday evening when the young lady asked him to drop her home. He obliged and was in front of her house, when the gunmen who apparently were trailing him opened fire.
One resident of Graham Street said a police van had passed through the street a few minutes before the shooting.
The resident recalled that she was in her house around 8.45 pm when she heard loud explosions. The woman said at first she thought someone had fired off squibs, but when she checked she saw two cars parked alongside each in front of her bridge.
“When he came through the street the killers’ car was behind and so it look like they were trailing him,” the woman said.
According to reports, the young lady said she took a little while before exiting the car as she was waiting to allow the car behind them to pass. “But it was clear the men didn’t want to pass they had their plans,” the resident said. After the killers realized that the woman was not getting out of the car, they fired some eight shots from inside their vehicle, hitting Edwards to his head and other parts of his body. One of the killers then got out of the car, went to Edwards and shot him again in the chest. The men left speeding off in a southerly direction on Graham Street, Plaisance.
Meanwhile, Edwards was left in the car slumped and it was not until the killers’ car disappeared that residents went to his rescue.
One woman said Edwards body felt stiff as if he had already died. A man drove Edwards to the hospital.
Edwards’s father said he was hardly in contact with his son. The man said when his son left the force he gained employment with a diamond dealer. According to the dead man’s father, sometimes Edwards would travel to the interior and spend many days. “I don’t’ know what played out here, I really don’t know,” Edwards’s father said when questioned about the possible motive for his son’s execution. Other relatives described Edwards as a good man, who did not get into harm’s way. The man leaves to mourn 12 siblings as well as his parents.
