The fragments recovered from the bodies of the three linden protestors shot dead on July 18, are shot gun pellets and all ranks on duty in the mining town that day have given statements, the Guyana Police Force said yesterday.
The disclosure was made in a press release in which the force said the Crime Chief Seelall Persaud was denying telling a Kaieteur News reporter that police ranks had shot and killed the protestors or that anyone else had shot and killed them.
The release was in response in a Kaieteur News article, headlined “Linden protestors’ shooters identified – Crime Chief,” that suggested that Persaud said the policemen who shot and killed three Linden protestors have been identified. Persaud denied saying that police ranks had shot and killed the protestors, police said yesterday. It added that while Persaud has indicated that he had spoken to the reporter on Thursday, he told him that the fragments recovered from the bodies of the three protestors were identified as shotgun pellets and that the police ranks who were on duty at Linden during the demonstration had submitted statements to facilitate the police investigation.
The force or a senior official is yet to publically state whether the ballistics tests have been completed. Stabroek News was unable to reach Persaud yesterday.
The AFC had said that its efforts to have a UK-based ballistics expert flown to Guyana to observe the tests of fragments extracted from the men is in limbo as officials are now asking that he get a work permit.
The three protestors, Shemroy Bouyea, Allan Lewis and Ron Somerset, were shot dead near the Mackenzie-Wismar Bridge at the start of a protest in Linden over a hike in electricity tariffs.
