It was basic police thinking and instinct that led to the sighting of a suspicious car that was transporting gunmen, who later shot a police corporal dead and wounded two more in a brazen assault on the Avenue of the Republic on Saturday night, according to Crime Chief Seelall Persaud.
He said that one prime suspect has been arrested and the search continues for a second man.
Persaud expressed belief that the gunmen deliberately got out of their vehicle which had to stop at a red light at the Regent Street junction and was also caught in traffic, and opened fire on the ranks because they did not want to get caught.
Updating Stabroek News on the case which forced police to lock off several streets in the city in a search for the gunmen, he said that one man is in custody while police are looking for another. This person is separate from a number of persons who had been initially detained in connection with the incident.
According to Persaud, the suspect who has been detained is known to the police.
Reconstructing the events of Saturday night, he said that ranks on a mobile patrol out of the Brickdam Police Station were on the eastern carriageway of the Avenue of the Republic when they “became suspicious of a vehicle” in the vicinity of Robb Street. While he did not say what was suspicious about the vehicle, Assistant Commissioner Responsible for Operations George Vyphuis had told reporters on Saturday night at the hospital that a white car was observed with a tampered number plate.
Persaud told this newspaper yesterday that the ranks signalled to the occupants to stop but they refused. Based on information he received, the car turned onto the western carriageway of the Avenue of the Republic from Croal Street. Persaud said the sirens on the police vehicle were on and still the car did not stop. He told Stabroek News that what would also have raised suspicions was the fact that one of the occupants of the car had a handkerchief tied around his nose. But Persaud also surmised that this could have been for a number of reasons including issues with the air conditioning which might have been on in the car at that point.
Persaud said that as the car approached the Regent Street junction the light turned red, in addition to which there was heavy traffic. He said the car was forced to stop and the ranks came out of their vehicle and approached it. As they did so, Persaud said, that the occupants began discharging rounds at the police. Corporal Romain Cleto was fatally wounded while constables Randy Daly and Anil Rajpersaud were injured.
Thereafter the occupants fled in their car. Persaud yesterday clarified that the car had not been recovered as reported in Sunday’s edition of this newspaper.
Based on the rounds recovered at the scene two guns were used in the shooting. Persaud said that one was a rifle as 9 mmm spent shells were found while the second gun used was more than likely a pistol.
Asked if based on what has been recovered so far, it was possible that the men were about to committed a crime, Persaud said it was, noting that the fact that they had illegal firearms was also a “good reason why they would have wanted to escape from the police”.
When asked if he believed that the gunmen panicked when they were forced to stop at the light, he said that it was “a deliberate action” because based on information gathered at least one of the gunmen came out of the car and opened fire. “They didn’t want to be arrested,” he said.
Meanwhile, Persaud said a post-mortem examination performed on the body of the slain cop revealed that he died of shock and haemorrhage due to a gunshot injury. Stabroek News was later told that it was a gunshot wound to the head that killed the rank.
Constable Rajpersaud who was wounded on the shoulder by shattered glass was discharged after being treated at the Georgetown Hospital while the other rank remains hospitalised.
