Informant refutes police version of Diamond shootout

Jun 07, 2015 News

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– victims’ relatives want case reopened 
The recent position taken by Minister of National Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, regarding two policemen

who were found culpable for the torture of teenager Tywon Thomas, has lifted the spirits of many. Those who felt that for too long members of the Guyana Police Force have been “getting away with murder”, now have a new thought.
Ramjattan, last week, ordered the Commissioner of Police to terminate the services of a Police Corporal, who was involved in the matter, while he is also recommending that the same be done by the Police Service Commission with regard to an Inspector of Police.
But while the Minister’s actions have sent a clear message to those policemen who are inclined to violate the rights of citizens, some members of the Guyana society want him to go further and hold accountable those ranks, who are fingered in extra judicial killings.
This will certainly appease the relatives of two young men who were gunned down by the police under questionable circumstances on December 7, 2013 at Diamond, East Bank of Demerara.
On that night Paul Bascom, a resident of Diamond Housing Scheme and Alberto Grant, or Alberto Mustapha, 28, called Mukie, of Lot 299 Meadow Brook Gardens were shot dead during an alleged 20-minute shootout with police.
Although the Police Office of Professional Responsibility was tasked with investigating that shooting, the findings of their probe have not been released to the public although the then Commissioner of Police

Leroy Brumell had promised to have that done.
The men’s relatives are appealing to the new administration to re-open the matter since to them the matter has been covered down to protect the “favoured” policemen involved.
The current administration had condemned the wanton police killings when they were in opposition and many are expecting them make good on their promise to address the matter.
The police had explained that they had STAKED OUT the home of a trucking service operator that the suspects were reportedly planning to rob.
According to the police, they challenged two men, who were approaching on foot, and one of them pulled out a handgun and opened fire on the ranks. The police returned fire and fatally wounded both men.
The police said that they recovered a .38 snub-nose revolver with two live rounds and two spent shells, along with one 9mm. round and two 7.62 x 39 rounds.
The police version of events bears several inconsistencies and it also bears an eerie resemblance to another suspected execution style killing in the city.
The same scenario was painted by the police after they shot and killed three men outside the K&VC International Hotel on South Road, two months earlier.
On that occasion, police had reported that ranks, acting on information about a planned robbery on

an occupant of the K&VC Hotel, had STAKED OUT the building last Saturday night.
The police said that around 20:30 hours the ranks observed the occupants of a car, bearing registration number PPP 8539, drive up and stop in Alexander Street. Three men exited the vehicle and proceeded towards the K&VC Hotel.
Again the police challenged the men who opened fire on them, and the ranks returned fire.
According to the police during the exchange of gunfire Jermaine Canterbury called “Chow”, 21, of Hogg Street, Albouystown and Mark Anthony Joseph called “Two Grand”, 19, also of Hogg Street, Albouystown, were fatally shot. Mario Gouveia, 19, of James Street, Albouystown, was shot and injured to his face and subsequently died mysteriously a few days later in the hospital.
Again the police recovered an unlicensed .38 snub-nose revolver with three live rounds and three spent shells and an unlicensed .32 revolver with two live rounds and one spent shell.
In both incidents the victims were shot in the head.
The similarities were not lost on Paul Grant and Anita Sebrene, the father and mother respectively of Alberto Grant and Paul Bascom, who have both been on a crusade to find out the truth about the circumstances that led to the killings at Diamond.
But despite all the information they were able to gather, they were not able to put the pieces of the puzzle together; not until they happened to read an explosive report in the Kaieteur News a few weeks ago.
Their efforts to find out the truth were renewed when they read that self confessed hit man, Lennox Wayne, called “Two Colours” admitted that he was a part of the police operation that resulted in the deaths of their two sons.
Wayne had told this newspaper that he worked along with the police on a number of operations, including the one outside the K&VC hotel as well as the shooting in Diamond.
He gave the names of the officers, who were on both operations and suggested that they did not happen the way the police said they did.
“Dem ain’t had no shoot out,” Wayne had confirmed.
He said he went to the scene on his motorcycle and when he stopped at the location, the police who were following behind pulled up also.
“By time I stop, all I see is dey (police) stop and start discharging rounds when they see de men coming out de yard. Me ain’t see de men dem fire nothing…it wasn’t an exchange of gunfire,” Wayne said.
He explained that the police are familiar with most of the people who are committing gun robberies.
“So when dem get shoot down, de police does always say that there was an exchange of gunfire,” he added.
He could not say what Bascom and Grant were doing in the yard but noted that Bascom lived in the said area.
“But I believe that somebody put dem on spot. You know people could put you pon spot fuh police shoot you,” Wayne told this newspaper.
He said he did not mind giving a statement to the police so that the matter could be properly investigated.
The dead men’s relatives believe that he is the key to any investigation into the matter and are appealing to the authorities to ensure that he is protected.
“If they interview him (Wayne) now, they will get the full story and the policemen will definitely have to be charged for murder,” a relative of one of the Diamond victims said.
The pain of losing his son took a toll on Paul Grant. He said that he remained in is house for almost one year, trying to come to grips with the fact that the son who was closest to him was taken out in such a brutal manner.
Grant and his son worked together in their construction business.
In fact from the inception, he suspected that there was some foul play regarding his son’s death.
“When I got the news it sound so very funny because when he left the house he asked me for $10,000 and I gave it to him,” Grant said. He was speaking publicly on his son’s death for the first time.
It was not until later the following day that he learnt that his son was killed. Grant said that at the time he did not know the circumstances that led to his son’s murder, nor did he go to the mortuary to see his body—he sent his daughter.
“When she came back she said, ‘Daddy, is true. Alberto died and I see he got some gunshots in his head, from the back. She said that she noticed that his hands were broken and his foot broken in two places,” Grant recalled.
However, on the day of the Janaaza, Grant went to bathe the dead and came face to face with the gruesome injuries his son’s body bore, which suggested the brutal nature of his death.
He said when he looked at his son’s face, he came to the conclusion that his son was executed.
“It was like if you put a little child on the ground and you shoot them in the head, because the back had two small holes and the front, the whole face tear away,” grant said.
He also based his conclusion on the fact that his brother who was a former policeman had seen gunpowder residue on his son’s neck, just prior to the post mortem examination.
He stated that his subsequent investigations led him to conclude that his son and the other man, Bascom, who were reportedly complete strangers to each other, were victims of extra judicial killings.
For one, the house where his son was shot bore no signs of the 20-minite shootout that the police had claimed.
Then, the yard is usually protected by some vicious pit bulls. Like everyone else, Grant is questioning how his son and Bascom ended up in the yard where there were visible signs of a lot of blood.
He spoke of other suspicious discoveries too numerous to mention, that has led him to conclude that the police were covering up the matter.
For example, he said that the police involved in the shooting were overheard talking about it in a yard on Laing Avenue shortly after they had washed out the bloodstains from their vehicle on the West Ruimveldt Front Road.
This suggested that although the men’s bodies were removed from the scene by the Lyken Funeral Parlour, they were transported in the police vehicle at some point in time.
One resident said she saw police removing the bodies from the yard which gave the impression that the men were killed in the yard. The yard is however, surrounded by a fence which is approximately 10 feet in height with barbed wires lining the top.
“The police investigators came to my house once and they never came back,” Grant said.
Anita Sebrene told this newspaper that with Grant’s help, she too had been trying to learn the truth about her son’s death.
She did not know Grant before the killing. She admitted that her son had a previous brush with the law and was attending court when he was brutally cut down.
According to Sebrene, her hopes of finding the answers she was seeking skyrocketed when she read in the newspaper about Wayne claiming to be an eyewitness to the shooting.
She immediately contacted Grant and they began putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
“The police never came to me for any investigation. In fact, I went to them but I got no satisfaction,” she stated.
She said that with the new information that has emerged, she will get some justice for her son.
“The police that murdered my son, I would like to see them charged,” Sebrene declared.
Her sentiments were echoed by Grant who expressed confidence that there will be some form of justice under the new administration.

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