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South Road, Grove slayings…Former ‘killing squad’ ranks grilled about civilian deaths

Jun 17, 2015 News

Top police officials have begun to grill former members of an alleged ‘killing squad’ about their role in the slayings of five civilians two years ago.
A senior police official yesterday confirmed that investigators questioned two ranks and an ex-sergeant on Monday at CID Headquarters, Eve Leary, about the deaths of civilians Jermaine Canterbury, Mark Anthony Joseph, and Romario Gouveia, in October 2013, and the slaying two months later of Paul Bascom and Alberto Grant in Grove Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara.
The official said that while the ranks (identified as a police lance corporal and a corporal) and the ex-sergeant were not detained, they were instructed to return today for further questioning.
The ranks of the now-disbanded anti-crime unit came under scrutiny after self-confessed hit-man Lennox Wayne, known as ‘Two Colours’, alleged that they shot and killed five civilians, who were said to be involved in armed robberies.
On October 12, 2013, cousins Jermaine Canterbury, 21, and Mark Anthony Joseph, called ‘Two Grand’, 19, and Romario Gouveia, 19, all residents of Albouystown, were slain during what police said was a shootout near the K&VC Hotel in South Road.
On December 7, 2013, Paul Bascom, a resident of Diamond Housing Scheme, and Alberto Grant or Alberto Mustapha, 28, called Mukie, of Lot 299 Meadow Brook Gardens were killed during an alleged 20-minute shootout with police at a Grove, East Bank Demerara residence.
While the police had claimed that the men were all shot dead during armed confrontations, Wayne, a former police informant, alleged that the youths never fired at the police.   Wayne has claimed that he was present when the trio was shot, and it was he who had informed the ranks that the suspects were planning a robbery.
But he also claimed that he had no idea that the suspects would have been executed.
He claimed that during one of the confrontations, the suspects were mowed down even as they had their hands raised in surrender. He said that one of the ranks actually brought a .38 revolver in a haversack to the scene of the ‘shootout’. The police reportedly later claimed that this weapon was retrieved after the ‘shootout.’
On Thursday last, in the presence of attorney at law Nigel Hughes, Wayne gave police investigators an official statement on the two shooting incidents.
Head of the Police Complaints Authority, Cecil Kennard, had recommended an inquest into the shooting of the three men on South Road, following complaints made by the father of one of the dead men.
Earlier this month, Wayne blew the lid on the alleged police involvement in the plot to kill popular businessman Mohamed F. Khan. One of his revelations has since led to a Police Sergeant being charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
Wayne is presently incarcerated, awaiting trial for the murder of Lusignan Cosmetologist, Ashminee Harrryram,
Kaieteur News understands that the unit was disbanded last year after reports that they were operating outside of their mandate and were not reporting specifically to their superiors in the Guyana Police Force.
Former Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee has denied having knowledge of the anti-crime unit that Wayne has been fingered in the extra-judicial killings.
In an expletive-laced response, Rohee said that the unit did not report to him and suggested that this newspaper question Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud on the subject.
Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan has vowed that all rogue cops will be rooted out from the Guyana Police Force.

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