A man turned himself over to police yesterday while another is being sought in connection with Saturday’s shooting, which left a policeman dead and two others wounded, according to Crime Chief Seelall Persaud.
Persaud said that in addition to the suspect who was arrested, a second man turned himself in with a lawyer yesterday. He noted that this person was never on the police’s radar and he is unsure how the man ended up going to the police.
According to Persaud, two prime suspects have been identified. The first suspect, who was arrested, is known to the police. Investigators, he added, are vigorously pursuing the case to ensure that those responsible are caught.
He again stressed that all the evidence gathered so far suggests that the gunmen who opened fire on the ranks wanted to avoid arrest. The “suspicious car” that the men were travelling in is yet to be found.
Earlier in the week, in reconstructing the events leading up to the shooting, Persaud 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 their suspicions were raised by 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 said the ranks signalled to the occupants to stop but they refused and drove onto the western carriageway of the Avenue of the Republic from Croal Street. As the car approached the Regent Street junction, the light turned red and this coupled with heavy traffic forced the car to stop. The ranks came out of their vehicle and approached but as they did so, Persaud said, the occupants began discharging rounds at them. Corporal Romain Cleto was fatally wounded while constables Randy Daly and Anil Rajpersaud were injured. Thereafter the occupants fled in their car.
Meanwhile, Persaud said that a CCTV camera, which was one of many installed by government, did “not cover where the incident occurred.” The camera is mounted on the Bank of Baroda building.
He said that the camera picked up people running but it did not get “the evidence we were hoping to pick up.”
With yet another apparent failing of the cameras to pick up information in a high-profile case, questions have been raised once more about their function.
One security source said that the mere fact that that area is usually crowed during rush hour in the afternoon, there should be a camera or cameras that could pick up images from different angles.
The government has kept the project which cost millions of dollars under wraps and so far it is unclear what is happening with the footage. Early last month, Police Commissioner (ag) Leroy Brumell had told Stabroek News that CCTV cameras are being used by the force. “I think that it (the camera system) is still operating. Where the cameras are, as long as there are robberies in that area, we try to use them,” Brumell had said adding that “these cameras are important to solving crime, as long as you see something. It is not here alone it is being used, it is used in the Caribbean.”
