Courtney James, who was wanted in connection with a string of armed robberies on the East Coast Demerara, including last month’s attack on Magistrate Nigel Hawke, was shot dead by a policeman yesterday morning.
Reports are that James attempted to rob a minibus passenger at approximately 8.25 am yesterday. The vehicle was waiting at the traffic light, located at Mandela Avenue and Hunter Street, Alexander Village, when James reportedly tried to grab a chain from a passenger’s neck.
A police rank in civilian clothing was a passenger in the same minibus and he pursued James on foot west along Mandela Avenue. The rank, according to eyewitnesses, discharged two shots in James’ direction. The man collapsed shortly after in the vicinity of Speedway Auto Spares store and Camry Restaurant, located along the avenue. “I was sitting right out front,” one eyewitness said. “I see the whole thing. This man [James] was trying to snatch a chain or something from a passenger in this minibus that stop by the traffic light. It had a police in plain clothes in the bus and he chase the man.”
Police, however, said James shot at a policeman, leading to an exchange in which he was killed.
According to the eyewitness, the policeman discharged the first shot at James when the man was several yards away from the bus. The shot hit James, who began staggering. The policeman discharged a second shot, which caused the fleeing man to collapse. Several other witnesses recalled hearing two gun shots, which they said were both fired by the plain clothes policeman. A mobile police patrol headed east along Mandela Avenue soon arrived at the scene. Police, eyewitnesses further said, recovered a firearm on James.
Sources said James was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) around 8.45 am. The man’s body is at the GPH Mortuary. Stabroek News was unable to contact his relatives.
Police, in a press statement issued late yesterday afternoon, said, “James was fatally shot by the police during an exchange of gunfire at Alexander Village… a .32 revolver with three live rounds and two spent shells,” was recovered by the police. According to the police, James was seen by member of a mobile police patrol jumping over a fence in Alexander Village. James was challenged by the policeman, the release said, and he discharged two rounds at the officer, who returned fire hitting him about the body.
The man, police said, was the primary suspect in the armed robbery committed on Magistrate Hawke at his home at Non Pariel, ECD, on April 20; and 33 other reports of robbery under arms. James was also reported to have raped six of his victims during the robberies.
James, police further said, had managed to elude them on Saturday last in Haslington. During a raid conducted by police on a building in Haslington the wanted man was spotted. He managed to escape by jumping from the building in which he was seen.
An AK-47 rifle with eight matching rounds and a .32 Taurus revolver were recovered by the ranks and another man was arrested during the search. Police had issued a wanted bulletin for James two days after the attack on Magistrate Hawke. James, according to police, has no fixed place of abode.
Three arrests were made by police on Saturday when they raided the two East Coast Demerara buildings. According to a police press release issue that day, a man and a woman were arrested in connection with property that was taken during the robbery committed on Magistrate Hawke last month and a man was arrested in connection with an armed robbery which occurred last Thursday at Enmore.
Magistrate Hawke was tied, gagged and left on his bathroom floor as a robber, armed with an AK-47, reigned terror in his Non Pariel home for approximately 45 minutes. As the magistrate struggled to free his hands tightly bound behind his back, the bandit escorted his wife, attorney-at-law Donelle Hawke, around their home in search of cash, jewellery and other valuables.
The armed man carted off a laptop, a digital camera, two cell phones, a quantity of jewellery worth about $350,000 and $15,000.
