-no response from US on mastermind
Nine months after a miner was killed on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway in a bizarre incident that triggered a wave of violent attacks in Georgetown, there has been no development in the investigation.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud said recently that the police were still looking for four remaining suspects, including two who escaped from custody. He told Stabroek News that there had been no further developments in the investigation, noting that there had been no response from the US to requests made in locating the alleged America-based mastermind.
The police had issued wanted bulletins for Troy Ellis and Shawn Benn; Charles Clarke called ‘Pumpkin’ or ‘Perkin’; Colin Jones called ‘Bunny’; Kurt Thierens called ‘Glasses’; and arson accused Keith Ferrier called ‘General.’ Jones and Thierens had previously escaped from the Providence Police Station lock-ups shortly after they were held for questioning into the Ministry of Health fire.
Benn and Ellis turned themselves in to investigators in the company of their lawyers while relatives of Clarke claimed that he was overseas since last May – six months before the incidents occurred. Government later said that the alleged mastermind of the blitz was also linked to the Ministry of Health fire several months earlier. The mastermind resides in the US and has been linked to the incidents through a telephone number. Two requests for assistance were then made to the US authorities in locating him.
‘Answers’
“There is more to this story,” Carmen Roberts, the mother of dead miner Woodette Roberts told Stabroek News. “Meh really ain’t satisfy with this thing man.”
She said that the various versions did not make sense and she wanted the police to investigate the series of events thoroughly and find the answers. A grief-stricken Roberts told this newspaper that since the incident she had been doing her own investigations and was becoming more suspicious about the circumstances surrounding her son’s death. The woman noted the strange behaviour of the persons her son was with when he was abducted. According to her, the information she received suggested that the men who stopped the vehicle her son was travelling in were after another passenger. “I want police to start investigating and find answers. I am not satisfied. Ah don’t buy this story!”
Woodette Roberts, called ‘Buckman’ and ‘DJ Stress,’ left his home at around 9 pm on November 4 last year in a gold coloured Toyota Tacoma pick-up land cruiser, GLL 7171, driven by Roopchand Gopaul, 38, with Sean Embleton, called ‘Deportee Sean,’ 25, as the other occupant. They were reportedly on their way to an area called ‘Frenchman’ to mine gold and diamonds.
The three men were intercepted at around 0015hrs the following day in the vicinity of Loo Creek, Linden/Soesdyke Highway, when a white Toyota wagon and a silver grey motor car overtook them and flagged them down using a red triangular reflector like the ones used by police. The police subsequently reported that eight men, dressed in black clothing resembling police uniforms, and bullet-proof vests including one marked ‘Police,’ exited the vehicles and identified themselves as policemen searching for arms and ammunition. During that time, two persons dressed in civilian clothing and driving a grey Carina motor car, approached and spoke to the men in uniform and went off in the direction of Dora. The armed men duct-taped and handcuffed the three men and placed them in the tray of the Tacoma pick-up and drove off. The men were then deposited at separate locations and the perpetrators left the area in the vehicle.
Gopaul, who reportedly ran all the way from Dora to Kuru Kururu, and Embleton managed to escape from their captors, while Roberts was later found dead just off a trail at Dora. He died from suffocation.
‘Puzzling’
According to the police, the hijacked pick-up was later used to launch armed attacks on the Brickdam Police Station, the East La Penitence Police Outpost and the High Court. However, Carmen Roberts told Stabroek News that this link still puzzled her. “Ay want fuh know how it reach town and then reach up back hey,” she said. “It puzzling me because you mean fuh tell me no patrol on the highway or the East Bank ain’t see this vehicle?”
She added that the police theory didn’t make sense to her but was convinced that one day the truth would be revealed.
From the police force’s official account, around 02:30 hours, three men dressed in dark clothing, armed with guns and wearing toques, went to the West La Penitence home of Clayton Westford, one of the men charged with the Health Ministry fire. He had been released on bail.
The man’s mother Pamela opened the door after the men claimed to be police ranks. They then handcuffed and took him away, ending up in the La Penitence Cemetery. There, the man was assaulted after claims that he was “talking too much and giving evidence against them.” Westford later managed to escape.
At about 02:55 hours, three armed men also wearing dark clothing and toques, approached the female RK Security Guard at the High Court in Georgetown and told her not to be alarmed. One of them remained with the guard, while the others went to the Registry and later a fire was seen in the area. All three men then left in a gold coloured Tacoma pick-up vehicle, which from all appearances was the one taken from the men on the highway. The fire caused damage to records and a part of the building. A quantity of channa later was found in the building.
At 03:00 hours a group of armed gunmen in the gold-coloured Tacoma vehicle proceeded to the Brickdam Police Station, where they threw a grenade at a police vehicle as it was being driven into the compound. However, the grenade failed to explode. The men then shot the sleeping quarters at the station, resulting in injury to some ranks.
About fifteen minutes later, while Westford’s father, Clifton, was making a report at the East Ruimveldt Outpost in relation to the incident involving his son, the same Tacoma pick-up along with a white motor car bearing registration number plate PLL 6081 approached and shots were discharged at the station. No one was injured.
Later, at approximately 03:30 hrs, the Richard Ishmael Secondary School was set on fire but it was put out as a result of the quick action by public-spirited citizens and the fire service.
Following the attacks the police recovered a white wagon at Houston with three bullet holes on the hood and windscreen which was believed to have been one of the vehicles used by the gunmen.
The day after the incident, a burnt Tacoma pick-up was discovered at Millie’s Hideout, on the outskirts of Linden, with ammo and explosive material. It was later positively identified by its owner as the one hijacked on the highway.
When quizzed about the police’s claim that the two incidents were linked, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud had said that there was evidence to show the connection and maintained this position during a recent interview.
While Persaud had not gone into details, a senior police officer had said that the link was made through eye-witnesses, who not only identified some of the gunmen but identified the gold coloured Tacoma. However, it appeared that those eye-witnesses later recanted.