A man fitting the description of one of the perpetrators involved in Wednesday’s armed robbery on the Agricola public road during which Melissa Payne was shot dead, was picked up in the village hours after the incident.
This disclosure was made by Acting Police Commissioner Henry Greene who told Stabroek News yesterday that three persons were picked up in a house in Agricola.
This newspaper understands that shortly after the shooting, armed ranks went into the village to look for suspects and saw three men running. They were pursued into a house and were later arrested.
Two of the men were taken to the Georgetown Hospital that night to be treated for cuts and bruises they sustained while attempting to flee the area.
During a visit to the area following the incident, a resident had complained that he had no faith in the police because they do not respond to reports of incidents in the village.
Commenting on this yesterday, Greene said that many of the residents are scared of the criminals and as such do not cooperate with the police.
Police said in a release last evening that they are searching for a fourth man, in connection with the incident.
Up to press time last evening the trio was still in police custody.
According to reports 27-year-old Payne of Lot 56 Den Amstel, West Coast Demerara and her reputed husband John Fraser also known as David Fraser were proceeding to Georgetown when they were forced to stop shortly after 8 am when the canter they were in encountered a mechanical problem.
Within minutes and while Fraser, a contractor, was attempting to fix the problem, gunmen who were standing in an old shop across the road came over and menaced them.
One approached Fraser, another went to the woman and the third acted as a lookout. Fraser managed to run into oncoming traffic but Payne was unlucky as a gun had already been pressed against her side and she was commanded to hand over the handbag she was clutching.
From all accounts, the woman attempted to escape and was shot in the process while the men fled through a nearby alleyway with the bag which contained more than $100,000 and the two gold chains she was wearing.
Payne who sustained a single gunshot wound under her right armpit was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Hospital. Fraser escaped unhurt.
According to reports the three men involved in the incident are known criminals who would attack unsuspecting villagers late at night. They would hide out in an old shop at the entrance of the street leading to the back of the village and would pounce on persons as they passed, robbing them of valuables and in some cases carrying out sexual assaults. Two of the youths are living in the Agricola while the third is from a community farther up the East Bank but spends lots of time in the village, this newspaper was reliably informed.
