The accused in the attempted robbery of a police rank and his family, who were believed to have been trailed from the airport last October, was yesterday faced with a new charge related to the crime.
Collis Collinson, 23, was charged with discharging of a loaded firearm at off-duty rank Richard Ramoutar, with the intent to maim, disfigure or cause him actual bodily harm, on October 7, 2015, at Kitty.
Collison pleaded not guilty to the charge, which was read to him by Magistrate Alan Wilson in Georgetown.
According to the police prosecutor assigned to the matter, the defendant was already charged with three criminal offences that he allegedly committed on the day in question. The prosecutor noted that the new charge was the last to be added to the case file.
Collison was charged last October with discharging a loaded firearm at off-duty rank Prem Narine, with having in his possession a .38 revolver and three live rounds of matching ammunition without being the holder of a valid firearm licence. His alleged accomplice, Shawn Thom, was also charged and like Collison he too was remanded to prison. Thom reportedly died of a heart attack while he was in prison earlier this month.
Thom, who had claimed that he is a vendor at the East La Penitence Market and part-time taxi driver, was shot once to his foot by police ranks who confronted the occupants of a vehicle along Barr Street, Kitty after Narine, who had picked up his relatives from the airport, reported his suspicion that he was being followed.
Thom claimed that he was working as a taxi driver at the time and that he had been transporting passengers when he was shot in the right knee by a man who identified himself as a police constable. The two men were accused of being part of a gang that trailed and then robbed travelers who arrived in the country at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport.
Meanwhile, in court yesterday Collinson professed his innocence and he said that he was wrongfully accused by the police and he did not know the people the police are accusing him of shooting at.
Magistrate Wilson remanded Collinson to prison and adjourned the matter until March 29 for trial. Before adjourning the matter, the magistrate told the prosecutor to summon all the witnesses in the matter for the commencement of trial at the next date.
