Mark Griffith, who was shot last week during the attempted robbery along the Liliendaal Railway Embankment that left his alleged accomplice dead, was on Monday remanded to prison after being charged with two counts of armed robbery.
Griffith, 25, of Sheet Anchor Village, East Canje Berbice, appeared before Magistrate Zamilla Ally-Seepaul in the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court. He was not required to plead to the two indictable charges and was remanded to prison until October 4.
The charges were laid a few days after Griffith was positively identified by a witness during an identification parade as the accomplice of ex-prison officer Trydon Munroe, who was fatally shot during the attempted robbery.
Munroe, 24, of New Amsterdam, Berbice, died after he was shot several times in his chest by a security guard escorting the intended victim, the supervisor of an interior flight service who was couriering parcels of cash and gold.
Griffith is believed to have been wounded as well. Hours after the shooting, he had turned up at the Georgetown Public Hospital with gunshot injuries.
The attack had occurred around 9.45 am last Tuesday while the supervisor and her armed security escort were heading back to Georgetown in a car after collecting several parcels from the Eugene F. Correia International Airport, at Ogle.
The police had said that while the two were in the vicinity of the Giftland Mall Access Road on the Railway Embankment, a dark coloured car blocked their path and two bandits, who were brandishing firearms, exited the vehicle.
The police added that the security escort drew his firearm and discharged several rounds that struck Munroe, who fell on the road. “The security [escort] then exited the vehicle and discharged his firearm at the other armed accomplice (suspected to be Griffith) who managed to escape on foot,” it added. The vehicle that transported the bandits to the scene sped away during the shooting.
Griffith was recently sentenced in his absence to two years in jail on an armed robbery charge. He was charged in October last year with an armed robbery committed on a resident of Bristol Street, Cumberland Village, East Canje, Berbice. Following the completion of the trial in May, Griffith, who never returned to court after being released on bail, was found guilty of the charge and he was sentenced in his absence.
