Weeks after four men, including former presidential press officer Kwame McCoy, were arrested in connection with the murder of political activist Courtney Crum Ewing, police are still receiving advice as to how to proceed with the investigation.
A senior police official, when contacted recently, said the file on the matter is with the police’s legal adviser. It is unclear what is causing the delay in the charging or exoneration of the suspects.
Police in February arrested PPP members McCoy and Jason Abdulla as well as former policeman Shawn Hinds and Okenny Fraser in connection with the murder investigation. They were later released after an extended stay in police custody. The court had granted the police additional time to detain the men.
Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum had told the media that the arrests were made as a result of new information received by police. “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 [it]…,” he said, before informing that the police were advised to do additional investigations by the force’s legal advisor.
It would appear that since then the file has been back and forth between the two.
Soon after taking office last May the government had said that the investigations would be reopened.
Subsequently police swooped down on the Riverview home of Regan Rodrigues, called ‘Grey Boy’ and said they found a gun. Rodrigues had jumped into the Demerara River and was apparently not there was the police found the weapon, an illegal 32-calibre gun and matching ammunition.
He later turned himself in and police subsequently said that ballistics tests confirmed that the gun was linked to the Crum Ewing murder scene.
On August 7 last year, just over two weeks after the weapon was found, Rodrigues was charged. However, following a trial, he was freed of the gun and ammunition charges on January 11.
Rajput Narine, the ex-bodyguard of former attorney general Anil Nandlall was also taken into custody on August 7 last year and questioned but was released without being charged.
His lawyer had said that although police told Narine he was being arrested in connection with the Crum-Ewing investigation, while in police custody he was never questioned about that. There was, however, a confrontation between Narine and Rodrigues.
Nandlall denied that he was in any way connected to the murder of Crum-Ewing.
Just over a month after Narine was freed, McCoy and the others were detained.
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 incumbent PPP/C at the May 11 general elections. He was shot five times, including three times in the head.
For weeks prior to his death, he had held a one-man protest outside 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.
