Police say that they will be forced to bury and mark the grave of a foreigner killed two Saturdays ago in a shoot-out following the abduction of a woman and her daughter at Ruimzeight Gardens on the West Coast of Demerara.
The dead man, who has since been identified based upon documents found on him as Raul Antonio Munoz Centeno of Venezuela, has been lying at a mortuary on the Essequibo Coast. Local authorities had requested through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Venezuelan Embassy in Georgetown to make contact with Caracas to positively identify the body, but more than a week after no one has showed up.
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday a senior police officer in the West Demerara division said that they might more than likely bury the dead man this week and mark his grave just in case anyone shows up later. The man had sustained several gunshot wounds to his upper body during the gun battle at Pomeroon in the Essequibo River.
Meanwhile police are still holding Jesus Oliva Ortega Manriquez, another national of the South American country who was captured during the shoot-out.
He had denied being involved in the abduction which police said was drug-related and has since landed the woman’s husband, Barry Datram in hot water.
On Friday Datram was arrested on a US provisional arrest warrant for allegedly conspiring to import over five kilos of cocaine into that country. Datram was initially arrested in relation to the kidnapping after police disbelieved that the incident was a genuine abduction.
It is still unclear whether police will charge Manriquez who from all appearances is unrepresented. He was deported from this country last year, but tarried at the home of a friend after claiming that he had injured one of his hands.
Police said in a statement last week that around midday on December 8 Datram, 29, reported to them that about 2 am the said day as he was about to enter his home two masked men armed with a rifle and a handgun held him at gunpoint and forced him into the building. The two armed men tied him up and allegedly demanded cash and jewellery and his wife handed over US$16,000, $800,000 and jewellery to the value of $40,000. The men then took his wife and their three-year-old daughter and escaped in his motor car after telling him that they would call him later for more money. Police later responded to a tip-off and engaged the men.
