The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) in a statement yesterday refuted a report in the Kaieteur News that Tyrone Pollard called `Theodoris’ who was shot dead in Buxton a week ago by members of the Joint Services, was an ex-soldier.
The statement read that the GDF “unequivocally refutes the allegation in an article captioned, `Police still testing weapons recovered from slain Buxtonian’, as published on page 6 in the Kaieteur News edition dated Thursday March 27. The inaccuracy inferred that Tyrone Pollard was an ex-soldier of the Force”.
GDF said that a thorough examination of its records showed that the man was never enlisted or was associated in any way with the Force.
Pollard, a resident of Buxton Sideline Dam was shot and killed last Saturday morning in what the Joint Services said was an exchange of gunfire, although residents have given a different account of what transpired insisting that the man was not armed and that only one shot was fired.
A Joint Services statement released shortly after the incident said that Pollard who was wanted for questioning in relation to the 2005 murders of policeman Somdat Ramoutar and civilian Chandrika Persaud, was shot and killed at Eastville.
He was also wanted for questioning, the police said, in connection with the murder of Army Corporal Ivor Williams who was shot and killed during a confrontation between the Joint Services and a group of armed gunmen in the vicinity of Company Road, Railway Embankment, Buxton on January 23, 2008.
The police had further said that ranks of the Joint Services had been conducting a cordon and search operation on a house at Webster Avenue, South Buxton, when Pollard ran out of the building as they approached and discharged several rounds.
He then jumped into and crossed the Sideline Canal over to the Eastville Dam from where he again opened fire on the ranks. The ranks returned fire during which he was fatally shot, the statement had read.
Police said that an unlicensed .32 revolver along with two spent shells and three live rounds which fell into the Sideline Canal were recovered by the Joint Services.
However, eyewitnesses had a different account of what transpired and said that the man was unarmed and wore flimsy clothes which would have revealed if he had been carrying a weapon.
An eyewitness said she saw the man when he ran through her yard and headed for the trench, which he later leapt into. However when he reached the other side, he surrendered but was shot.
