-major probes still at standstill
The police in collaboration with members of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) yesterday conducted a number of roadblock exercises in A Field Sophia and on the lower East Coast in search of illegal weapons, drugs and criminals.
However, all that the exercise netted were two knives and two cutlasses which were found in vehicles searched in A Field Sophia, sources say.
Stabroek News was told that the almost 20 police and soldiers on the exercise spent most of their time in Sophia in the operation which was launched at around 4am yesterday morning. However, it did not get started until around 9am and after about three hours it was called off.
While on the Turkeyen Railway Embankment the ranks did not search all vehicles but chose some at random. The rider of a CBR motorbike apparently had something to hide from the lawmen because on seeing them he reportedly did an about turn and rode away. Police gave chase but the man managed to escape.
The police through its public relations office had informed the media about the roadblocks and invited the media to go out and take photographs and speak to the commanding officers on the ground. A release on the roadblocks was promised but later in the day it was stated that none would be forthcoming.
And even as the police were conducting roadblocks their investigating officers appear to be stumped by a number of shootings and killings in recent times with the most prominent of them being the attempt on the life of Commissioner of Insurance Maria van Beek on April 15
Even though the police through its Crime Chief Seelall Persaud have indicated that the identity of van Beek’s shooter is known there has been no arrest nor has a wanted bulletin been issued for the shooter. According to reports, van Beek was stuck in a long line of traffic at the junction of Lombard and Leopold streets during a heavy downpour when a gunman walked up to her vehicle and fired a single shot through the driver’s side window. He jumped on a waiting motorcycle parked on Leopold Street and fled.
And just last week Monday retired police superintendent Clifford Peters was gunned down by one of two men while he and other Guyana Power & Light (GPL) workers were removing illegal connections from Lamaha Park. While reports indicate that the man’s colleagues were able to identify the men responsible for the shooting no charge has been laid.
The police did, however, arrest and place before the court 19-year-old Rolston Bernard Henry who they said is responsible for the slaying of taxi driver Clifton Graham whose battered body was found at La Bonne Intention (LBI) on May 3.
However, there has been no such break in the brutal death of a father and son who were shot to death in late March. The decomposing remains of Romeo De Agrella, 41, and his son, Clint De Agrella, 20 of Grant Strong, Hope, Lower Pomeroon River were found days after they failed to return home. Persaud has said a man was arrested shortly after the discovery and that the man had provided information to the effect that the killings were drug related but since then there has been no word on investigation and the murders seem to have been added to a long list of cold cases.
There is also the unsolved murder of taxi driver Keith Bowen who was found shot in the head on Sussex Street on March 19 and was taken to the hospital where he died. Bowen a resident of First Street, Vigilance, East Coast Demerara was found near the entrance to the `Island’ at West La Penitence bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound. His blood-stained car was found abandoned on Princes Street the day after he died.
Then there was the gunning down of 15-year-old boy Warren Scotland at Block ‘R’ North Sophia and of Terrence Plummer outside a Sheriff Street restaurant in early March. Both cases remain unsolved.
Scotland, who was gunned down on a roadway in North Sophia “was an onlooker at a group of men who were gaming in front of a shop at North Sophia.” Two men, according to a police press release, armed with handguns approached the group and held up Rambeer Ghanny who was involved in a game of cards.
The armed men took away a quantity of jewellery and a wristwatch that Ghanny was wearing and escaped. Ironically, Ghanny had visited Guyana for Plummer’s funeral. While leaving, the police had said, one of the men discharged a round which struck Scotland to the left side of his face. Scotland was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
With regard to Plummer, the police had stated that he was with two other men drinking in front of the restaurant when two men, one of whom was armed with a gun, approached the group. The armed man placed the firearm to Plummer’s head and discharged a round and as he fell to the ground, the bandit removed his jewellery, the police said. His accomplice then took away a cell phone and they escaped.