-robbery suspect surrenders
Wanted man, David ‘Colonel’ Mc Pherson, 40, was shot dead by police around 10 pm on Tuesday while one of two suspects who was being sought in a Canje robbery on Monday has turned himself in.
Mc Pherson was cornered in a bushy area in a yard where a shop is operated at Betsy Ground, East Canje. Acting on information, police staked out the area from around 9 pm.
Sources said the officers pleaded with the man to surrender but he refused and police reports are that he advanced towards a rank with a cutlass. Several rounds were then discharged and the man fell to the ground.
He was picked up and rushed to the New Amsterdam Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
And a suspect in the robbery, Bhojnarine `Duck’ Ramkissoon, 27, of Betsy Ground surrendered in the company of his lawyer, Charrandass Persaud at the Reliance Station yesterday.
His alleged accomplice, called ‘Blacks’ is still on the run. The two allegedly robbed Canje businessman, Maurice ‘Bayee’ Sookraj, 58, around 7:30 am on Monday of cash, jewellery and other articles.
The residents who switched off their lights and sought cover in their homes as gunfire erupted told this newspaper that they noticed when a car and two jeeploads of policemen, some of whom were dressed in plain clothes arrived in the area.
They said the ranks parked their vehicle away from the scene as they surrounded the shop and lay in waiting for their target.
One hour later gunshots rang out in the neighbourhood but the residents were too afraid to venture out of their homes.
It was only yesterday morning that they learnt that Mc Pherson who was wanted in connection with a number of offences, was killed.
During the stakeout ranks conducted searches in vain for the two suspects at a few abandoned houses.
An arrest warrant was issued for Mc Pherson who had been sentenced in May to five years imprisonment in his absence for robbery under arms.
Mc Pherson who was released from prison last December was said to be the leader of an armed gang that terrorized and robbed Berbicians of cash, jewellery and other articles.
Police had a close encounter with the man on Monday after he was spotted on a dam while they were in the area conducting a manhunt for two suspects who had just robbed Sookraj.
He managed to elude capture by swimming across a trench and heading towards the Canje Creek. Shots were fired in his direction and police believe that he sustained injuries on that occasion.
Police in a release said that Mc Pherson was wanted for questioning in relation to a number of armed robberies in the Canje district and was hiding in a yard at Betsy Ground.
The release said too that upon arrival the police saw McPherson in the yard armed with a cutlass.
As the ranks approached in an effort to arrest him, he reportedly “attacked one of them with a cutlass causing the rank to resort to the use of force and he was shot to his abdomen.”
Meanwhile police sources said yesterday that residents have been coming forward with information that the man had robbed them.
Mc Pherson’s relatives have refused to offer any comment to this newspaper on the shooting but according to sources, they said that they had asked him to turn himself in on many occasions but he reportedly said he was not ready.
Meanwhile, five persons who were in custody for harbouring criminal elements have since been released.
Shortly after the robbery residents said two suspects, Ramkissoon and `Blacks,’ were seen running through the back street.
Their descriptions fit those of the robbers given by the businessman.
Police recovered a 12-gauge sawn-off shotgun and 18 live rounds of ammunition, a crow bar, a knife, a black mask, a black wig, and a blow torch in an abandoned house.
They also found a part of a computer taken from Sookraj during the robbery as well as a bag with three pounds of marijuana.
