One month after 12 people were shot dead in the small mining township of Bartica, Guyanese are still in the dark as to who carried out that attack. And in the absence of any police statement in relation to ballistics evidence linking the Lusignan killings – thought to be the work of the Buxton/Agricola gunmen – to those in the mining community, some security sources have advanced the hypothesis that a drug-linked gang might have committed the act.
Police, in a statement one day after the killings in Bartica, had noted that the gunmen wore foreign camouflage clothing and from all assessments, the killers seemed well-trained with an abundance of intelligence about the Bartica community. Their motive seemed not only to be murder, since they also raided the business place of Chunilall Baboolall where they stole 12 guns as well as a large quantity of gold and cash.
Information collated from various sources by this newspaper, points to no conclusive link in the modus operandi of the killers at Lusignan and those who stormed Bartica, overrunning a police station and stealing a large number of firearms and gold on the night of February 17. However, President Bharrat had taken the leap in announcing two days after the killings in Bartica that the murderers were the same men who had slaughtered 11 people at Lusignan. At a press conference on Friday, he repeated the statement that the two killings were linked.
The only official ballistics evidence of the Bartica slaughter was provided by Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee in the National Assembly earlier this month. Contrary to what Jagdeo had said earlier, Rohee announced that ballistics tests conducted on spent shells found at the crime scene at Bartica firmly established that the same weapons had been used to commit killings and robberies at three other locations last year, namely, Better Hope on August 21, 2007; Sheribana on October 1, 2007 and at Triumph on December 16, 2007. He did not mention the Lusignan slayings of January 26, 2008.
Up to Friday, Stabroek News could not ascertain from the police whether there was any ballistics evidence linking Lusignan and Bartica. When asked about the contradiction between his comments and those of Rohee, Jagdeo told reporters that the minister perhaps inadvertently omitted to mention the Lusignan-Bartica connection, and insisted that the two incidents were linked. The police have not issued any statement on ballistics findings at Bartica, although they had done so shortly after the Lusignan killings. Security officials are of the view that even with ballistics evidence linking guns used at various crime scenes, in a society where criminals rent guns for specific operations the possibility that two different groups were responsible for the killings at the two separate locations could not be ruled out.
Who attacked Bartica?
A senior security official had told Stabroek News that the attack at Bartica might have been a collaborative well-executed plan by drug-linked gunmen operating out of Guyana and neighbouring countries. Stabroek News had been told that certain known shady characters who had links with the drugs trade might have hit hard times and they are believed to be involved in armed robberies. A senior police officer told this newspaper that the force was aware of these reports, but asserted that there was no hard information on the claims. “What we know is that we are looking at everyone, whether you dealing drugs or doing robbery,” the officer who asked not be named said. According to the police official, the scale and manner of the slaughter seemed to be more than criminality, and there might be a bigger motive behind it. Authorities had sought to link both to wanted man, Rondell ‘Fineman,’ Rawlins, who had threatened days prior to the Lusignan killings that he would create mayhem if his pregnant, common-law wife, Tenisha Morgan, was not returned safely after she went missing on January 18. His threats had coincided with the ambushing of an army patrol the same night on the Buxton railway embankment during which time a soldier was killed. Two days later the police headquarters was attacked and early the next day the 11 people were slain at Lusignan.
Several persons were quick to make a connection between Lusignan and Bartica because of the number of people who were killed. However, Brigadier, (Rtd), David Granger said that “What we are looking at is a pattern in which heavily-armed gangsters are capable of creating mayhem.” A former national security advisor, Granger told Stabroek News that the pattern of mass killings did not start at Lusignan, noting that it went back as far as the carnage in Agricola, Eccles and the shooting at Kaieteur News printery. He said that criminals seem to have now adopted a new pattern of killing and this may not be peculiar to any one group. It is not the first time that men linked to the drugs trade have been accused of engaging in other criminal activities. Two recent high-profile robberies in the Guyana jungle were said to be the work of drug-linked operatives.
Modus operandi
From all reports, the killers at Lusignan announced their arrival with wild shooting, randomly targeting homes where they executed their victims. A relative of the Thomases, one of the families targeted had told this newspaper that the gunmen pushed down their doors and began firing wildly. The relative said the criminals asked no questions. This was the pattern throughout the hour-long rampage in the community. Residents were unanimous that the gunmen escaped via the canefields, a mode typical of the gunmen operating out of Buxton.
Security experts have remarked that it was fair to assume that the killers at Lusignan were linked to the Buxton/Agricola gang since there was ballistics evidence linking weapons used in other attacks allegedly committed by the criminals from those communities.
The police had recovered an AK-47 rifle used in Lusignan slayings when they shot two gunmen during a dusk operation in Buxton a few days after the Lusignan incident. Using ballistics tests, authorities also linked the weapons used at Lusignan to those that killed Agriculture Minister, Satyadeow Sawh, two of his siblings – all three naturalized Canadian citizens – and a security guard in April 2006. The AK-47 rifle, retrieved from gunman Troy St John, was also said to have been used in killing several of the four men, two women, three boys and two girls who died at Lusignan. Police further explained that 35 spent shells found at the Lusignan scene matched 18 other spent shells found at the scene of the April 2006 killing of Sawh, who was also a former Guyana Ambassador to Venezuela.
The gunmen had invaded Sawh’s home with almost military precision shortly after he, his brother Rajpat Sawh and sister Pulmattie Persaud had returned from a late-night family function. His wife, who hid in the bathroom, and two sons who were not at home escaped the grisly attack.
At Bartica, the gunmen first attacked the police station, ensuring that the lawmen were immobilized. They proceeded to steal weapons from the station and then moved into the community where they robbed a number of places.
At Lusignan there was clearly no intention to rob the residents. In the case of Bartica, observers believe that apart from the policemen who were killed at the police station the other nine people who were slain might have been in the criminals’ way. Six men were lined up and shot dead on the ferry stelling and this occurred as the gunmen were leaving the area. Some residents believe that they were killed because they saw the gunmen’s faces and because they were all boatmen who could have easily tracked them down. Several Barticians have pointed to possible links between the criminals and members of their community. Some residents also suggested that some of the killers appeared to be in their late 30s and even 40s. At least one of the gunmen wore a pair of slippers. Killed in the attack were Bartica residents Edwin Gilkes, Dexter Adrian and Irving Ferreira; and policemen stationed at the Bartica Police Station, Lance Corporal Zaheer Zakir, and Constables Shane Fredericks and Ron Osborne. Deonarine Singh of Wakenaam; Ronald Gomes of Kuru Kururu; Ashraf Khan of Middlesex, Essequibo; Abdool Yaseen; Errol Thomas of Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo; and Baldeo Singh of Montrose, East Coast Demerara, were shot execution style on the Transport and Harbours Stelling.
