While former presidential press officer Kwame McCoy is claiming that he is the victim of efforts to assassinate his character, Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum on Thursday said that he and others were detained in connection with the Courtney Crum-Ewing murder investigation as a result of new information received by police.
Police last week arrested PPP members McCoy and Jason Abdulla as well as former policeman Shawn Hinds and Okenny Fraser in connection with the probe. “We would have received further information and as a result of that we arrested those guys and we had them in custody but because of the complex nature of that investigation time did not permit us to complete the investigation,” Blanhum told reporters on Thursday, while disclosing that police have been advised that further investigations are needed. “We are hoping that sometime, maybe in the next week or so, we will be able to complete that investigation,” he added.
According to Blanhum, on Wednesday detectives further questioned the four men. He added that they were each released on their own recognisance and they have been reporting to the police. The High Court last week had granted the police an additional 72 hours to hold the men but it proved to be insufficient.
Blanhum informed Stabroek News that the police force’s legal adviser, after reviewing the evidence they had gathered, advised that further investigations be conducted.
Crum-Ewing was shot dead on the evening of March 10, 2015, at Diamond, East Bank Demerara, where he was urging residents to vote against the then incumbent PPP/C at the May 11, 2015 general elections.
For weeks prior to his death, he had held a one-man protest outside former Attorney General Anil Nandlall’s office, calling for his resignation over controversial statements he made during a telephone conversation with a Kaieteur News reporter that was made public.
The recent arrests have come just two months after Regan Rodrigues, who is charged with the murder, was acquitted on a gun possession charge. The gun was said to be the weapon used to kill Crum-Ewing. However, in November a court found that there was no evidence to prove that the weapon and the ammunition found along with it belonged to Rodrigues.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued on Thursday, McCoy proclaimed that he has never committed a crime and he said efforts are being made to destroy his character.
“No doubt those with their sinister objectives and ulterior motives are set to destroy my character. The extent of this nasty politics, hate and spite being directed at me and other Afro-Guyanese in the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) in such fast and furious manner, must be condemned outright,” he said.
“In my entire life I have never contemplated, initiated or executed a crime,” he added.
On Monday, McCoy, Abdulla and Hinds were charged with assaulting newspaper columnist Freddie Kissoon, who was doused with faeces during an attack in 2010.
McCoy, in August, 2012, had been convicted of assaulting a man by gun-butting him, after an argument over election campaign posters. At the conclusion of a trial, McCoy was found guilty of threatening and assaulting Clifton Stewart and was ordered to pay $70,000 in fines or face jail time. McCoy has said his conviction is being appealed.
