Police say that they are looking for two persons in connection with last month’s brutal murder of two Kato based ranks even as relatives are accusing the Force of keeping them in the dark and of being unsympathetic.
Acting Commissioner of Police Leroy Brumell told Stabroek News last evening that a suspect had been arrested but had to be released after the 72 hours in police custody permitted by law had expired. He stated that two other persons are being sought in connection with the investigation.
Asked whether investigators have determined the motive for the killing of Constables Leadon Aaron and Marlon Letlow he responded in the negative, noting that several theories are circulating including that they had done “something to people.”
Based on what Stabroek News had been told the team that was first dispatched to the area gathered very little information. The plan was to form a second team to go back to the location. The fact that several of the ranks were involved in the Linden Commission of Inquiry (COI) hampered that plan and it is unclear whether this team was ever dispatched.
The two ranks according to reports left the Kato Police Station, Region Eight on an All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) on patrol duties on October 14 and never returned.
Two days later police received information that an upturned ATV with its headlamps on was found in the Paramakatoi, North Pakaraimas area. It had apparently been spotted by a Brazilian man who was passing the area at the time. The man also spotted blood on the vehicle but saw no one.
Some time on the following day, the bloodied bodies of the two men were found in the general area. Letlow a 27-year-old father of one of Lot 23 Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara was found lying face down with gunshot wounds to his back while Aaron aged 25, of Coldingen, East Coast Demerara was found tied to a still smoking tree trunk a short distance away.
In addition to being shot in the head, Aaron’s entire upper body was badly burnt. He had been stationed in the interior area for just over two years while Letlow had been there for six weeks.
Police had said in a press release, “The service Carbine that had been uplifted by Constable Marlon Letlow was recovered along with eight rounds and eight spent shells. The service .38 Revolver that had been uplifted by Constable Leadon Aaron has not been found.” The release added that one spent 12-gauge shotgun cartridge had been found at the scene, and the Force‘s ATV had been recovered.
The police said that Letlow was reinstated in the Force on August 6 this year. He had been interdicted from duty after being charged following investigations into the robbery and murder of two gold miners at Bartica on September 5, 2010.
Constable Letlow, the release said, was initially charged with being an “accessory after the fact” which was subsequently withdrawn and a charge of “receiving stolen property” instituted.
This matter was dismissed by the court on May 15, this year.
When contacted last week, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud would only say that there have been no new developments in the case and that investigations are continuing.
A very upset Bernadette Aaron told this newspaper via telephone from her home that she has developed a hatred for the Force for the way they have treated her family following the death of Aaron, who is the eldest of her four children. She said that she will not rest since she has found some incriminating information on her son’s cellular phone which she found in the pocket of a pair of pants which were returned to her.
Her voice still laced with grief she went on, “the Police Force is very disrespectful. Unto now nobody from there can’t come and tell us anything. No one has called to say anything.” The woman told Stabroek News it was someone from the interior who called and informed them that her son had been killed and if it wasn’t for her husband’s persistence, it would have taken longer for the bodies to be transported to the city.
She explained that all they have gotten from the Force is $200,000 which was put towards the funeral expenses, and which she described as very inadequate.
The woman said that she had two sons left and because of the attitude of the Force she would not allow them to pursue a career in policing.
She added that it was she who had to keep calling in relation to her son’s personal belongings, and last week she ended up at Eve Leary to collect his items and was given two pairs of pants, two shirts and two briefs. “Where is his groceries and pot?” she said, explaining that a lot of what her son owned she had bought.
She said that she decided to write down everything that was given to her and this apparently offended the rank who was there.
She said that she chose to do that because “they didn’t give me back even half of my son’s stuff.” According to Bernadette her son had a portable DVD player and two birds that were not returned to her.
The distressed woman said that on many occasions she had to go to the Ogle Airport to send food for her son, which sometimes cost her as much as $16,000 (in weight).
Asked about her son’s benefits. Bernadette said that they were told that they had to get a letter of administration and will need to go through 13 different processes before any money could be given.
The woman pointed out that this could take as much as one to two years and she questioned why the family had to go through that when her son clearly died while on the job.
She recalled that she spoke to her son the day after he would have left the station (October 15) and he was looking forward to returning home for his sister’s birthday and later her wedding which was to be held on October 27. She said that when she left the country, they did not get a chance to see each other, so they were anxiously awaiting their reunion.
Among the information Bernadette received was an item that the two ranks were called “out on a job.” Yesterday she asked that if that was so why had the person who made the report not been detained. She also said that she finds it strange that the persons in the three camps located near the area where the bodies were found, did not hear anything. “There were three other camps there. How did the Toshao know what time it happen?” she queried.
“Someone is trying to cover up something,” was her view, noting that her son never wanted to go to Kato. She explained that he was stationed at Monkey Mountain when two ranks came under fire from residents who were armed with bows and arrow, earlier this year.
Her son, she said, had to transport the most seriously injured of the ranks to the airstrip for him to be brought to the city for medical attention. He was subsequently posted to Kato.
While observing that this was not a profession that she wanted him to join, she was curious as to why he was sent to the interior division straight out of training school; she felt that experienced persons should be posted there. She said that after living for four years in neighbouring Trinidad it was she who brought him home. He took computer classes before deciding to enrol in the Force. “I wasn’t pleased about that but because he wanted that I let him go,” she said.
“I feel betrayed. I am not going to sugarcoat anything. Because of what has happened I have a hatred for the Force and I can’t overcome it,” she said.
She commented that her son had died a brutal death, going on to say that she did not have the strength to view his body at the post mortem examination, but was told that he was so badly burnt he was unrecognizable.
According to Bernadette she is seeking God’s guidance to bring the perpetrators to justice. She noted that when Constable Jirbahan Dianand was executed in Berbice the President was among those who visited his family.
“The Police Force don’t care. They didn’t even try to console the family or call to say something. I shouldn’t be running behind them,” she said, adding that if her son had killed someone, they would have heard from the police by now.
Expecting nothing
Meanwhile Letlow’s aunt, Samantha Allen, said that they too have not received any information from the police and have concluded that “it will go down just like that.”
She said that she contacts the police every day and all she is being told is that they are still investigating.
According to Allen, she doesn’t know what to say about the matter but never expected much to come out of it, although some day she will get answers.
She said that the funeral went well and as promised, Letlow was buried with full military honours. In the meantime she said that she is trying not to stress herself out over the situation.
