Police were forced to release the suspect in the murder of Mc Doom miner Gavin McNeil after eyewitnesses to the incident refused to attend an identification parade, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud said yesterday.
Persaud told Stabroek News that in the light of this, investigators were forced to release the man on station bail, but will continue to search for another man who was identified as being part of the attack.
The suspect who was released had been arrested on Tuesday night.
Police had said in a press release that around 7.55 pm on February 19, a gang of men attacked McNeil, his two daughters aged 12 and 14 years old and his mother-in-law, June Elwin, 49, moments after they arrived home.
The release said that as McNeil was parking his vehicle, the others proceeded to the house, where they were confronted by the robbers. Elwin said there were five of them.
Police said the men, two of whom were armed with guns and the others with knives and cutlasses, forced their captives to call out to McNeil’s wife, Melissa McNeil, 32, who opened the door for them.
The armed men then took away an undisclosed sum of cash, a quantity of jewellery and a cell phone and escaped.
It was as they were making their way out of the compound that they shot McNeil four times to his neck and shoulder.
He was later pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
