By Joseph Allen
An intense hunt by the Joint Services is continuing for death row prisoner, Mark Royden Williams aka ‘Smallie’ whose carefully planned escape from the Mazaruni jail on Friday has revealed major breaches in security protocols and left the prison authorities facing difficult questions.
Given the number of murders Williams has been convicted of – including the 2008 Bartica Massacre – he is considered dangerous and the police yesterday announced a $10m reward for information leading to his recapture.
At a hurriedly called press conference yesterday, Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn said that the breaches have prompted an overall review of the system to determine what led to the escape which saw at least one accomplice firing a heavy weapon at prison guards. No guard was injured but the circumstances surrounding Williams’ flight have raised concerns about assistance he might have had from both without and within the prison.
The press conference was hosted by Benn and Director of Prison (ag), Nicklon Elliot at the ministry.
Benn said that the event is one that never should have happened and clearly showed breaches in protocol.
“We of course have to have a thorough review of the event, where they might be possible, I’m certain lapses. Lapses of awareness and attention and violations of procedures to make sure that there is no similar occurrence and also to continue the efforts of beefing up the surveillance and support to the prison system”, Benn said.
“We are currently reviewing our standard operating procedures (SOP), to see what went wrong and how we prevent something like that from happening because one escape is too much”, Elliot added.
As of now, the authorities have noted they are going through the SOPs to see what went wrong.
As it is, the SOPs mandate that no person beyond prison staff, medical and religious personnel are permitted to see prisoners sentenced to death. Those outside of the list are expected to have a written permit from the Director of Prisons.
On Friday, the Ministry of Home Affairs said that Williams escaped while being escorted back to his quarters from a visit with a non-Guyanese woman. He escaped with the help of heavily armed accomplices who had arrived in a speedboat at the Mazaruni Prison just about around 14:30 hrs on Friday.
At the time, the prison guards were escorting Williams who was said to have had his feet shackled. The prison escort was fired upon with AK-47 and AR 15 automatic rifles from the boat alongside the Mazaruni River and it was at this point Williams escaped with the men.
More details emerged yesterday on how his accomplices, who came via river, engineered his escape.
According to police sources, on Thursday at about 3.45 pm, two men including a former murder accused hired a boat from Parika, owned and piloted by a Tuschen operator. They stated that they were heading to Itaballi landing. Besides rations and kerosene they had with them a suitcase which was later found to contain three rifles.
Along the journey, the police say that they stopped the boat a short distance from Karrau Village where they proceeded to open the suitcase which revealed three rifles. They then tied up the boat operator and told him that he should cooperate with whatever instructions were given to him. They slept there through the night. The following morning (Friday) about 4.30, they instructed him to navigate to an area close to the Mazaruni Prison where one man disembarked the boat with one of the rifles. The boat operator was then instructed by the former murder accused to return to where they had moored previously and to wait.
At about 2.15 pm on Friday, the boat operator heard rapid gunfire and the former murder accused instructed him to move in the direction of the beach area at the Mazaruni Prison. The boat operator said that he saw two men plunge into the water and then swim to the boat. He recognized one to be the escapee and the other, the man that he had earlier dropped off. He was then instructed to go further up the Mazaruni River.
In the vicinity of BK Quarry his engine seized up and the three men exited the boat with their belongings, each now carrying a rifle. They threatened him not to report it to the Police and departed into the bushes, police source say.
Prison guards and the police had pursued the boat to no avail.
The Ministry said that members of the Joint Services have been mobilized to effect the capture of Williams and his accomplices and a preliminary investigation is underway and persons are being questioned.
All citizens in the Mazaruni and surrounding areas are being advised to take precautions and remain vigilant as the persons being sought are armed and are considered extremely dangerous.
The female who had visited Williams just shortly before his escape has come under immediate suspicion. Her visit enabled Williams to be out of the maximum security facility and at a location where his accomplices could mount an assault to free him. Two prison ranks are also being questioned.
At yesterday’s press conference, Benn said that they know that Williams and company have landed on the Mazaruni right bank and have gone into the forest cover.
Since then, the Minister said that “the area has been isolated, the general Bartica travel area has been isolated by teams from the joint services and specialized teams of person have gone in and are combing the area. Checkpoints have also been established to intercept the movement of the escapee and accomplices and also to prevent any possible attack on civilians in the area, Benn noted.
Benn said it is believed that the men are still in Guyana and as such the forest is being searched.
He said it would not be business as usual in these areas due the operations and persons should not be alarmed but co-operate to bring the situation quickly to an end.
The operations will entail the checking of vehicles and restricted movements overnight. Benn warned that any person who aids the escapee can be charged.
As it is, Benn said that the authorities are upset with the situation and through an investigation the truth will come out.
“I want to say how upset we are at this situation. We recognized that with the information we have so far that it was well-planned, that there may be persons perhaps in the prison system and otherwise who may be in involved in relation to the issue, we have to determine that properly, as a result of investigation that have started by the police and the prison authorities”, Benn asserted.
Background
Back in 2022, Williams was sentenced to death for the 2008 murder of Guyana Defence Force (GDF) officer Ivor Williams.
Sherwin Nero also known as ‘Catty’, had also been charged and later he confessed to killing Ivor Williams and was released from prison after he pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter and was sentenced to time already served back in 2020.
Reports are that around 8:30 pm on the day in question several armed men ambushed a GDF vehicle returning to Camp Ayanganna from an administrative run in Berbice.
The gunmen engaged the soldiers on the Railway Embankment Road between Church of God and Company roads, during which Williams was fatally shot and two others, a soldier and a Friendship woman, were injured.
In 2017, Williams along with his co-accused Dennis Williams, called “Anaconda,” were both sentenced to death after they were found guilty of storming Bartica, where 12 men, including three police officers, were killed during an almost hour-long assault. Those killed in the rampage, were police officers Lance Corporal Zaheer Zakir, and Constables Shane Fredericks and Ron Osborne, and civilians Edwin Gilkes, Dexter Adrian, Irving Ferreira, Deonarine Singh, Ronald Gomes, Ashraf Khan, Abdool Yasseen, Errol Thomas, and Baldeo Singh.
Williams and company had appealed the sentence but months after, Williams was among the high-profile prisoners who escaped after a fire gutted the Camp Street Prison in Georgetown.
He was, however, apprehended weeks later by Police ranks while he was on a minibus on the Weldaad Public Road, West Coast Berbice.
In 2021, Williams was found not guilty by a jury of the December 16, 2007 murders of 35-year-old Rajesh Singh and 25-year-old Fazal Hakim, at Triumph, ECD.
Another man, Michael Caesar, called `Capone’, was sentenced to 13 years in prison after pleading guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter for the deaths of Singh and Hakim.
Caesar is also currently serving 45 and 60-year sentences respectively for killing a total of 20 people during the Bartica and Lusignan massacres.
Benn said that all efforts are being made to ensure that the crime spree of that period does not occur again.
“We are extremely unhappy that this has occurred. We do not want a reoccurrence of what is termed the ‘crime spree’ and will work hard at making sure we don’t have a reoccurrence of that type of situation”, he said.
