By Iana Seales
Why didn’t the policemen on the scene of the Middleton Street murder on Wednesday night pursue the killers and why was a checkpoint set up on that road at 9.30 pm with one policeman in uniform and another in plainclothes?
These are some of the questions that have been raised by members of the public about the force’s response particularly in light of the heightened security alert and citizens’ concerns about the need for rapid reaction.
Arjune Narine Singh died after he sustained several gunshot wounds in the high-calibre shooting by at least one gunman who exited a car on nearby Drury Lane to carry out the attack. Several other persons were injured.
Four vehicles, among them a marked police car, were squeezed together in a section of Middleton Street facing south at the time of the assault.
The police have not said whether Singh was the intended target but went on record as saying that no police rank was the target since according to them, the man who exited the vehicle had a clear shot of a uniformed rank who was standing mere inches away from Singh but did not take it.
Singh’s family who are unhappy with what they described as “irresponsible journalism and unsubstantiated assertions” about Singh said he may have been the target but have dismissed it as nothing more than a case of mistaken identity. They said the life he lived was not consistent with that of a person who people would set out to execute.
They said some people seem to have information about Singh that they were not privy to and are calling on those persons to meet with them and provide same.
“Since we wish to preserve Ryan’s (Arjune) memory and remember him for who he was there are things that we will put behind us. He was a good person and what happened to him was just plain wrong”, a relative related last Friday in an interview with Stabroek News.
Based on the accounts of victims of the attack, two police ranks, one in uniform and the other in plain clothes had set up a checkpoint at Middleton Street, a short distance away from Drury Lane, Campbellville. Why a checkpoint would be established on this type of road at this hour has raised questions in the minds of some citizens. The wisdom of having only one uniformed policeman has also been queried.
The rank in plainclothes had returned to the vehicle after the checkpoint was set up and remained there while the uniformed rank was attending to the driver of a car that was pulled over. Inside the car was Campbellville resident, Jean Singh and her son, Mark Semple. The two were asked to produce documents which they did.
At the time, the police car was parked on Middleton Street facing south and Semple and his mother were behind them. Immediately behind was Singh and almost parallel to Singh was Larry Gursahai’s vehicle. Singh had pulled up behind Semple and his mother while the policeman was attending to them and within moments Gursahai had pulled up behind him. Gursahai then made an attempt to pass Singh but was unable to because the uniformed rank checking the documents was in the way and Gursahai therefore remained alongside Singh.
Stabroek News was told that a car carrying a gang of around four men approached the police checkpoint and then turned into Drury Lane. It is unclear whether the gunmen’s car could have been trailing Singh but Singh’s movements did not seem to betray that he felt he was being trailed. The plainclothes police rank was out of the police vehicle at that time and was standing on the road.
A gunman then exited the car that pulled up on Drury Lane and fired at Singh’s vehicle and the other vehicles. The uniformed police rank immediately took cover on the ground while the rank who was in plain clothes jumped into a nearby trench.
The uniformed police rank then made it around to Gursahai’s car and urged him to open the door saying, “Is police, is police open up!” Gursahai complied and sped off as the gunfire ceased. The rank then told him to drive to the Kitty police station but he refused saying that he was injured and needed to go to the hospital. Gursahai and his brother-in-law Salim Alli, who was in the car with him managed to stop a taxi and they went to the hospital while the policeman drove off with their vehicle.
Why the uniformed rank made no attempt to trail the Drury Lane gunmen in Gursahai’s vehicle but only wanted to get to the Kitty police station has been questioned. The plainclothes rank could also have used the police vehicle as it had not been disabled by the gunfire. This was not done.
Lamented
One of the persons who had witnessed the attack said that Middleton Street was no place for the police to set up a checkpoint and also lamented that the policeman who made the interception was not even a traffic rank, raising red flags about whether this had been an authorized operation.
“On that tiny little road where the lighting was not all that good they decided to stop vehicles and stop and ask people for documents”, the person added.
Police Public Relations Officer, Ivelaw Whittaker told Stabroek News that the police have the power to stop any vehicle anywhere they deem fit if an offence is committed. He said the police stopped a car that night on Middleton Street because they noticed a defective headlight. He said the ranks working that night were not from traffic but he noted that any police could perform the duties of a traffic rank.
However the lead car that was stopped that night by the police – driven by Semple – did not have defective headlights. It was unclear if there was some other vehicle that had been stopped that night, prior to the Semple vehicle, with defective headlights.
When asked about the police response that night Whittaker said the ranks alerted headquarters and mobile patrols were immediately dispatched but the gunmen managed to evade them. Whittaker said the two ranks on the scene were in no position to pursue the gunmen.
During the interview with Stabroek News, Singh’s relative said they were particularly concerned about the police response since according to them, not much was done. The relative said taxpayers’ money which includes theirs was invested in the helicopters to fight crime yet when gunmen carried out a daring attack and killed Singh they were able to get away without any real effort being mounted to apprehend them. But the relative said this is the typical police response.
Singh, after being shot, was pulled out of his car but the information reaching his relatives was that he was believed to have been dead so there was no immediate rush to get him to the hospital. It is believed that around 15 minutes elapsed before Singh was taken to the hospital by a police vehicle. He died later at the hospital.
Wednesday night’s attack and another on Friday night in which both the WaterChris hotel and the Culture Ministry were shot up have put the police under further pressure because of the view that with major police stations within striking distance they should be able to cordon off sections of the city and hunt street by street to find the attackers.
Security sources point out that it means that at least one heavily armed gang – perhaps two – are now on the loose in the city.
