The third suspected bandit killed in Wednesday’s “shoot-out” with police has been identified as Quincy `Mac’ Alexander of Meadow Brook Gardens and despite conflicting reports on what transpired at the Prashad Nagar site the ranks involved were praised by Police Commissioner (ag) Leroy Brumell yesterday.
“I am told that three gunmen tried to invade a man’s privacy and they were shot… But I think we should be glad that we have three less (bandits) and two (less) firearms on the road”, he told reporters following the opening ceremony of the Guyana Defence Force’s annual Officers’ Conference.
The other two have been identified as Tony Ogle, 46, called ‘Skin Teeth,’ of Albouystown and Bartica, his cousin Leon Gittens, 24, called ‘Cow,’ also of Albouystown. All three men reportedly sustained multiple gunshots during the incident.
Asked to respond to reports that there was no shoot-out Brumell told reporters “listen, what the media can do for us is to put at the front of the papers, all bandits fatiguing persons, harassing people. If persons kill and rob people you don’t hear any voice, you don’t hear any voice, if anything happen you hear the police always late and sometimes if the police respond and take actions why do we have to answer all these questions…?”
He said that people only talk when the police take action and stressed that “we want to rid this country of certain things and I wouldn’t say we would want to go about murdering people. If we catch people doing that we would deal with them”.
The commissioner noted that “every time the police confront, you hear something, they always seeing. They must tell us who doing it, they don’t tell us that…we would investigate”.
“I think it was a good act and I want to compliment the ranks for the good job they did yesterday…I think they did some good work yesterday”, he stressed.
Police had said in a statement that ranks staked out the Lot 93 Premniranjan Place home of a miner, after learning that some persons had planned to carry out a robbery there.
The three men, two of whom were armed with firearms, entered the premises at around 10:05 am, police said adding that upon being challenged by the police, the armed men opened fire on the ranks who returned fire, hitting all three of them.
The injured men were subsequently taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where one of them was pronounced dead on arrival, while the other two succumbed while receiving medical attention.
A .357 magnum revolver with two live rounds and a spent shell, along with a .32 Taurus pistol with nine live rounds and three rounds that had snapped according to the police were recovered at the scene.
“He beg fuh he life”
Alexander’s reputed wife with whom he has three children said that persons in the Prashad Nagar area relayed to her that he pleaded for his life.
The woman who did not want her identity revealed told Stabroek News that the 32 year old left their Lot 53 Meadowbrook Gardens home around 9:15 on Wednesday morning but he did not indicate to her where he was going.
She received word of the shooting around noon and it was neighbours who later informed her that he had bought a cigarette and a chewing gum from a shop before boarding a black motor car on Meadowbrook Drive. Based on the information received by this newspaper it was a black Raum that dropped the trio off at the Prashad Nagar address. Up to press time last evening, the driver remained in police custody.
According to the woman, after learning of the shooting, she went to the hospital to identify the body but was prevented from doing so. After the “running” around, she recalled she was finally able to do that yesterday morning. She said that when she saw Alexander his head and neck “were pulled all the way back” and he had a bullet wound to the mouth.
The woman said that she was given horrid accounts of how Alexander died.
She said that she returned to the scene of the shooting and persons who said they were eyewitnesses told her that Alexander was the last to be shot. She said that she was told that he had put up his hand in surrender and pleaded with the police not to shoot him since he had to live to see his children. The woman said that she was told that he even pleaded with neighbours to help him and some persons begged on his behalf.
It was after this he was reportedly shot in his mouth. Stabroek News had received a similar account on the day of the shooting and when asked about it, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud denied that the shooting occurred that way. While continuously stressing that the men were shot during a shoot-out, Persaud had said that the only eyewitness was the businessman who was the suspected target. He said that the man in his statement corroborated everything that the police said occurred.
Alexander’s reputed wife told Stabroek News too that he worked in the interior with his brother prior to his death while she was a housewife. The woman said that now that he is dead she has no means of taking care of her children.
Stabroek News was reliably informed that police were told that the businessman was being targeted. It was explained that someone tipped off the businessman and he in turn made contact with the police.
Efforts to make contact with the businessman yesterday were futile.
The Crime Chief said that the businessman had an office there and miners visit the location to collect money. The Crime Chief said that based on what he was told the police were tipped off about a planned robbery.
Based on the information provided by the police, Ogle, Gittens and the driver had a checkered past, having committed offences ranging from armed robbery to break and enter and larceny. So far no information has been provided as to whether Alexander was linked to criminal activity or was before the court.
