So now that Smallie and his immediate accomplices are dead then that is the end of the story. Or at least that is what the government assumes we will all think. The problem is that the questions which surrounded the escape at the beginning still have not been answered, and even the full circumstances behind the killing of the escapee and his associate at 33 Miles Potaro Road by the Joint Services have not been made public. No one could have been more economical about details when reporting the fatalities than Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum.
While we do not know the precise circumstances surrounding the death of Mark Royden Williams, better known as Smallie, and his accomplice Odel Roberts, other than they were shot in the course of what was described as a “confrontation”, information had been provided at an earlier stage on how the third member of the trio was killed. This was Neon Howard, who was shot about six miles north-west of an Essequibo quarry concession on May 28th, four days before Smallie and his companion met their ends.
Prior to the announcement of his death, the public had not heard of Howard, because he had not been named as an accomplice of Smallie, and no wanted bulletin had been issued for him. But according to a police press release Smallie and his two associates were spotted at the St Mary’s quarry last Saturday, following which several patrols were launched in the area. It was early in the morning that an ATV patrol following a trail came across Howard and arrested him. Thereafter the story becomes a little perplexing.
The detainee was apparently put to sit beside the driver of an ATV, because the release states that he snatched one of the firearms from the man’s lap as he was driving, following which he jumped off the vehicle. After running a short distance in front of it he then turned to face it while trying to crank the firearm. The release went on to describe how one of the Joint Services ranks then discharged four rounds from his AK-47 in Howard’s direction, one of which hit him. As a consequence he fell into a ditch still trying to crank the firearm. On seeing this another member of the patrol fired three rounds from his 9mm weapon, two of which struck Howard. On arrival at the Bartica Hospital he was pronounced dead.
It was former Assistant Commissioner of Police Paul Slowe who first raised questions in relation to the Joint Services’ shooting death of Howard, describing the police account as “very strange”. In an interview with this newspaper he said that the first thing to do in the case of someone arrested, especially if he is supposed to be violent, is to handcuff him, and he asked why this was not done. In addition, it should be enquired why a firearm was left lying in the driver’s lap so it could be easily seized by a passenger supposedly under arrest. This is worse than unprofessional behaviour, it is rank irresponsibility.
Of especial importance was the point made by Mr Slowe that the priority should have been to capture Howard alive so that vital intelligence could have been gleaned from him. “If it is to say that the man attacked the police or the Joint Services representatives,” he said, “then they would have been justified in using lethal force, but one would have thought that when he was arrested all efforts would have been made to question and find out where the other persons were …”
Even when Howard fell into the ditch and was said to be trying to crank the weapon, it is still not altogether clear why with several ranks around it was necessary to kill him, rather than restrain him. To repeat Mr Slowe’s point in a different way, a live man can be interrogated, but not a dead one.
There is something else too, and that is we have a long history of extra-judicial killings here, one that we might have thought we were trying to emerge from. The Joint Services should never be indulged with the idea that if a bad man is bad enough it is justifiable to kill him extra-judicially, and no questions will be asked. That is not how the rule of law works. The problem is that the government in the past has operated on the short-cut method that the easiest way to eliminate violence is to kill the perpetrators by whatever means possible. That is not, however, the route to a stable, democratic, rule-governed society.
And now we have the matter of Smallie and Roberts, who will also now not be answering any questions. Exactly how were they killed and why did they split up with Howard? And why, for example, were they found on the Bartica-Potaro road? Exactly what was their destination or did they not know how to reach it? Do the authorities know the answer to those questions, or is it that they do know but do not intend to tell the rest of us? As said earlier, the impression is given that the government believes now the three are gone the entire matter is closed.
The matter, however, is not closed. We still do not have answers to the question of why Smallie was sprung from Mazaruni, because it must have taken some considerable funding to be able to effect that escape. Who was it that needed a convicted killer, and for what purpose? Early last week after the escape happened, the authorities were pressed for more information, and in some instances they maintained the case was a very ‘sensitive’ one and that the release of details could impede the work of the Joint Services. That situation no longer applies, so the public has a right to be told what the government knows about the issue.
