A Brazilian miner is now dead after he was shot and robbed of a quantity of gold last Wednesday but the police have arrested the suspect who confessed to the crime.
This was confirmed by Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum who told Stabroek News that the suspect O’Neal Griffith, 26 of Linden was arrested on December 31, 2015 at Itaballi.
The police in a press release said around 22:00 hours, Wednesday, the miner who was only identified as ‘Brian’, was working on a mining operation at Puruni Backdam when he was held up by a man armed with a firearm who fatally shot him in the neck and took away a quantity of raw gold.
A police source informed this newspaper that during the confession, Griffith told investigators that he went with a boat a little distance from the dredge where the victim and another man were operating and where he saw them fixing an excavator. A scuffle ensued between the men during which the gun went off hitting Brian in the neck. The source said that Griffith related that it was then he held up the other Brazilian and relieved him of 5 pennyweight of raw gold and drove away with the boat. Griffith confessed to throwing the firearm into the river and abandoning the boat in the course of making good his escape.
He was subsequently arrested by the police who conducted a search on his person and recovered the stolen raw gold.
