Ballistic tests linked an illegal gun recently discovered at a Georgetown house to the Courtney Crum-Ewing murder scene and the suspect now being questioned is believed to be the trigger man.
Commissioner of Police Seelall Persaud yesterday said that one other person is being sought by investigators.
Stabroek News has been told that information suggests that there are two intellectual authors behind the well-planned execution of the political activist, who was gunned down on March 10 in the Diamond Housing Scheme.
Shortly after the killing, Crum-Ewing’s relatives had told the media that two senior members of the former government had made threats to his life and these threats were reported to the Brickdam Police Station. The police have never disclosed clearly if those two persons were ever contacted and questioned about the reports.
Persaud, speaking to reporters shortly after the opening ceremony for a seminar for Divisional Community Relations Officers yesterday, said that police are in possession of new evidence. Persaud noted that investigators “ran into dead ends all along until this evidence came up.” He added that a line of inquiry focusing on a political motive has not been exhausted but added that the new evidence “now opens a lead to several things.”
“We have interviewed one person so far and there is another that we are looking for. So, it is in that stage of the investigation process,” he said.
Stabroek News was told that the person in custody is a remanded prisoner, who was last week charged with possession of an illegal gun and matching ammunition.
“We don’t want to put out any information now that will make it difficult for investigators so this is all we would want to say at this time,” Persaud said, when asked if the suspect was known to police.
He also declined to say where the suspect was arrested. “We don’t want to say anything more at this time. As time goes, we will release more information,” he added.
When contacted later, Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum would only say that “the probe continues.” He had told this newspaper late Friday afternoon that the suspect was being “intensively interviewed” at CID Headquarters, Eve Leary. Blanhum called it a “significant development” in the case.
The police have been heavily criticised for their failure to find those involved and there were accusations that this failure might have been intentional given the influential persons involved.
Police had recovered a number of .32 spent shells at the crime scene but ballistic tests did not yield any leads.
Sources close to the investigation revealed yesterday that the probe was at a standstill until acting on information received ranks searched a home. The suspect, after seeing the police, managed to escape but turned himself in one day later. A search on the home unearthed a .32 pistol and several matching rounds. The man, who is known to the police for gun-related activities and who was at one time the victim of a failed execution attempt, was charged afterward and remanded to prison.
The confirmation that the man was being questioned in relation to the Crum-Ewing probe came days after the police expressed confidence about solving the crime, with Blanhum announcing that a strategy towards this end had been decided on. It is not immediately clear if the police would have been armed with the ballistics results that linked the recovered weapon to the crime scene at the time.
Sources said that a description given by an eyewitness also matched that of the suspect.
Stabroek News was told that police have been concerned that if persons were ever to be charged in the case based solely on surveillance footage, lawyers would find a way to ensure that they were freed. As a result, police favour other evidence, such as confessions.
‘Must be caught’
Crum-Ewing’s mother, Donna Harcourt, yesterday voiced her satisfaction that someone has been detained but she urged police to go after the persons who planned her son’s murder. “I want the police to go after these two people who threatened my son, even if it means that this man [the suspect] gets half time. They must be caught ’cause they worse than the person who pulled the trigger. I don’t know how these people could live with that. They just running around the place like they ain’t do it,” she said. “It ain’t finish yet. I want all the players involved to get caught. I will feel better. I have been praying every day for this to happen,” she added.
Harcourt to date is still staging a protest over the killing and has vowed that she will not rest until the killers and those responsible are caught and tried in a court of law. She said she often gets “extremely depressed” but has been praying a lot.
The woman told Stabroek News that she will be watching the police closely with regards to the latest development. “I expect de police to do their job,” she said, while recalling that hours before she read of the questioning of a suspect, she had planned to picket the office of the Crime Chief on Monday. She said police have not contacted her about the development but previously she would be the one to make contact with investigators. She did make contact with police on Friday night and they confirmed that a suspect was being questioned.
‘Politically-motivated’
Meanwhile, Persaud Persaud was specifically asked if the person who has been interviewed is politically-connected in any way.
“We don’t know that—so we can’t say yes or no,” he said.
“There were several lines of inquiry and that [a political motive] was one of the lines of inquiry. The time of the incident to the elections would have driven one line of inquiry that this thing may be related to the elections, which is political. The fact that it occurred near to the home of a political activist, again, develops that line of inquiry that not only this thing is related to elections but somebody wants to bring a focus to the individual that lives there,” he added.
“At the same time, that is not saying that any political activist had anything to do with it. It might be individuals who think one party might have advantage over another if something like that happens…,” he, however, pointed out.
Harcourt told Stabroek News that she is happy that the police are now acknowledging that her son’s death may have been politically-motivated. Previously police had given no indication that this was one of the lines of inquiry that they were pursuing.
Crum-Ewing, 40, was shot dead as he walked along a street urging residents to ensure that they cast their votes at the May polls to remove the then PPP/C government from office.
Police had said that a car with four men drove up and discharged shots at him and then drove off. However, there is still uncertainty as to how many persons and vehicles were involved in the attack on Crum-Ewing, who was shot five times, including three times to the head.
Crum-Ewing for weeks last year had staged a one-man protest outside the office of the then Attorney General Anil Nandlall, calling for his resignation over controversial statements he made during a telephone conversation with a Kaieteur News reporter that was made public. At least eight persons had been arrested by the police in connection with the probe, but they were all subsequently released.
