Three of the four men who were charged with the dramatic attempted robbery at Republic Bank’s Water Street branch in 2017 were today freed after the charge against them was dismissed.
Those freed were Shawn Grimmond, 27, of 137 Pike Street, Kitty; police constable Gladstone George, 28 of Lot 55 Princes Street Lodge
and rural constable Anfernee Blackman, 25, of 65 Laing Avenue, West Ruimveldt.
The men appeared before Senior Magistrate Leron Daly at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court where she upheld a no-case submission made by their attorneys.
The men had all pleaded not guilty to the charge which stated that on July 4, 2017 while being armed with guns, they attempted to rob Republic Bank’s, Water Street Branch.
The magistrate stated that the prosecution had failed to make a case against the three men. However, she said that co-accused Keron Saunders, 28, of 59 Burnham Boulevard, Mocha will have to lead a defence on July 14th, after a case was made out against him.
In 2017, former Republic Bank employee Jamal Haynes had pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the attempted robbery of the bank’s Water Street branch that ended in a fatal shootout and was sentenced to six years in jail.
The suspected mastermind of the botched heist, Elton Wray, also known as ‘Peas’, 25, of Eccles, East Bank Demerara, was fatally shot while trying to flee the bank after the shootout ensued.
The police prosecutor had told the court that Haynes, by virtue of being an employee of the bank, had knowledge of day-to-day transactions. He added that Haynes was to facilitate and furnish the other robbers with information and identify a particular employee, who would have been in receipt of a large sum of money deposited over the weekend by customers of the bank.
Stabroek News was previously told that the gunmen used one of the Automated Teller Machine rooms to gain entry to the adjoining ground floor of the bank as employees were entering the building.
Once inside, they reportedly ran toward an area where there were canisters but discovered that they were empty. Because the men opened fire, members of the Professional Guard Service which guards the bank, took up positions and engaged the gunmen
The gunmen appeared to have panicked. Wray attempted to escape by running towards the new vendors’ arcade area. He was pursued by a guard and was shot.
Haynes, on the other hand, held a male teller hostage and ran to a cafeteria located behind the arcade. Once there, he shed a black outfit, a wig and a mask he had been wearing and pretended to be a cook. However, persons in the area raised an alarm and he was shot and apprehended.
Saunders, who was left in the building, later emerged and was subdued and arrested.
