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The Lamaha Park murder

Mar 21, 2010 Features / Columnists, Murder and Mystery

Was this a random killing or part of a conspiracy?

Night had already fallen when the taxi took me to ‘E’ Field, Sophia. I wasn’t happy about meeting somebody that I didn’t know in a community known for violent crime.
The thought that I was driving into some sort of ambush crossed my mind.
But the man at the other end of the line had insisted on the location. And he appeared to have some information about a murder of his colleague, GPL Chief Security Officer Clifford Peters.
It was at around 10:30 hrs on May 4, 2009. that Peters, a former Senior superintendent of Police, led a GPL team into Lamaha Park.
The security team was there to watch over the GPL disconnection crew while they removed illegal wires from the area.
But shortly after they arrived two men emerged from a bushy area and approached crew member Alan Savory.
From all reports, an argument erupted between Savory and the two men. Peters attempted to intervene but the men, who were carrying handguns, forced him to the ground and shot the security official in the head and chest at point blank range. He was killed on the spot. The men had also forced Savory to the ground but he managed to escape.
The killers snatched up the slain man’s firearm before fleeing on a motorcycle.
Shorty after, police arrested 22-year old Arnim Griffith, of West Ruimveldt Housing Scheme. He was then charged after allegedly being picked out from a police lineup. Another suspect, Paul James, was also detained and charged.
But Griffith’s attorney insisted that his client had an alibi for his whereabouts at the time of the murder. According to the attorney, Griffith, who had no previous brushes with the law, was arrested after police ranks asked him to show them the documents for a motorcycle he was riding. The attorney stated that Griffith was unable to produce the documents at the time since the motorcycle belonged to an uncle of his client’s.
I had no idea whether Griffith was guilty or not, but I decided to find out what, if anything, this stranger in Sophia knew or I told the driver to park while I made another call.
My contact answered, instructing me to drive until I arrived at a shop in the street.
I eventually arrived at a small shop, and a man stepped away from the building and approached the car. He appeared to be even more nervous than I was.
After checking my press pass and being satisfied that I was who I claimed, we moved away from the car and began to talk.
Like Armin Griffith’s attorney, Basil Williams, this GPL official, who claimed to be a friend of the slain security chief, insisted that Griffith was not one of the killers.
I was also told that one of the GPL employees had informed police that Griffith was not their man.
He also suggested that the execution was a planned killing. According to him, Clifford Peters had been slain because of some investigations that he had been conducting. What that investigation was allegedly about, and who was allegedly being investigated, he did not say.
After I left the area, I tried to verify some of the man’s information, but got nowhere.
I had almost forgotten about the matter when several months later, the news broke that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had withdrawn the murder charge against Griffith.
According to the story, the DDP gave the order after a GPL employee stated that he had not pointed out Griffith during the identification parade.
The statement was subsequently forwarded to the DPP’s office.
The freeing of Arnim Griffith makes me wonder about the other things that that stranger in Sophia told me last year.
If you have any further information on this case or any other, please contact us at our Lot 24 Saffon Street office or by telephone.
We can be reached on telephone numbers 22-58465, 22-58491, or 22-58458. You need not disclose your identity.
You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address [email protected].

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