Following the shooting to death of three suspected bandits at the Georgetown seawalls, Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan on Wednesday threw his support behind the Guyana Police Force.
On March 15, 2018, undercover ranks shot and killed Dextroy Cordis, Kwame Assanah and Errol Adams, on the Kingston seawalls after they allegedly attempted to rob a customer whom they had reportedly trailed from a city bank.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Regional Seminar for National Drug Observatories, Minister Ramjattan expressed confidence in the work of Police ranks.
“I am going to support my Policemen until such time that they are proven to have done something wrong,” Ramjattan observed, pointing out that the legal principal regarding the presumption of innocence is across the board.
He noted that while he believes and supports the report given by acting Police Commissioner David Ramnarine, Government is committed to ensuring that the matter is fully investigated.
“We are going to ensure that there be a complete, full investigation. We are waiting on the three statements from Mr Nigel Hughes. He called me and indicated that they are very fearful [but] we would like to complete the file and send it to the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions] and I rather suspect that a coroner’s inquest will be ordered,” the Minister highlighted.
He maintained that he is more inclined to trust the reliability and credibility of the Police Force.
Following the shooting, the Police claimed that they came under fire first and it was in defence that they returned gunshots killing the men. But last week, an ‘eyewitness’ Devon Lyte, who was reportedly working on a rooftop nearby, disputed the Police’s version of the story. However, he is yet to submit his statement on the matter. Following the surfacing of the alleged eyewitness, the acting Commissioner, David Ramnarine on March 29 declared that Lyte was never on the roof of the Guyana Softball Association on Carifesta Avenue, as he claimed.
Ramnarine asserted that investigators were in possession of three key statements which indicated that the Devon Lyte, a labourer, was working on the ground floor of the said building at the time of the shooting on March 15, 2018. President David Granger has since announced that a probe was ordered into the shooting and a coroner’s inquest by the Director of Public Prosecutions will follow.
GDF rank shooting
Meanwhile, in a separate case involving the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) rank killed his partner, the Public Security Minister has indicated that while the situation was “unfortunate”, it was not a regular occurrence.
“One swallow doesn’t make a summer,” he stressed. However, following the shooting, the GDF swiftly interdicted the accused, Captain Orwain Sandy, who shot and killed Reona Payne at First Street, Alexander Village, Georgetown following a heated argument between the two on Saturday last. He accused her of infidelity. The GDF Captain turned himself in at the Ruimveldt Police Station, and is awaiting formal arraignment at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts for the capital offence.
A post-mortem examination was conducted on Payne’s body on Wednesday, revealing that she died as a result of multiple gunshot wounds. The woman was shot 14 times, 13 to her chest and once to her head, at close range.
Meanwhile, detectives have since obtained an extension to hold the former soldier in custody while they await legal advice.
