Latest update November 22nd, 2024 1:00 AM
Latest News
- Exxon wants new oil block on own terms
- Indian companies eye Guyana’s oil
- ICC issues arrest warrant for Israeli PM Netanyahu for ‘war crimes’ in Gaza
- Developing countries should not be curtailed in exploiting natural resources- PM Modi tells Parliament
- Jagdeo was sold expired soft drink at Marriott Hotel
Murder suspects escape from Police Station
– smash through concrete wall
Police were up to late yesterday still hunting for murder suspects Stafrei Hopkinson Alexander and Robin Maxwell Thomas, who staged a daring breakout from the Mackenzie Police Station.
STAFREI HOPKINSON ALEXANDER
Hopkinson and Thomas reportedly escaped by smashing a hole through a cell wall. The suspects, along with Aiden Bowen, of Blueberry Hill, Wismar, were charged for the April 4, 2015 murder of businesswoman Shevon Gordon, who was shot near her One Mile, Linden premises.
They were being held overnight at Mackenzie and were due to appear at the Christianburg Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
Aidien Bowen, their alleged accomplice, was in the same cell at the time. He appeared in court before Magistrate Clive Nurse, where his attorney, Gordon Gilhuys, alleged that his client was beaten by police ranks to provide details about the escape. He is said to have told police that he was asleep, and had no knowledge of the breakout.
While details of the escape are sketchy, there are reports that a rank may have allowed one of the escapees to use his cell phone. It is unclear how many ranks were on duty at the time.
It is also unclear whether any of the ranks have been placed under close arrest in connection with the escape, though Acting Crime Chief, Assistant Police Commissioner David Ramnarine is convinced that “not enough vigilance was exercised” by the on-duty personnel.
Ramnarine told Kaieteur News that according to information, the ranks were in the Enquiries Office at around 02.00 hrs and when they checked the lockups they observed a hole in the concrete wall.
“For anyone to dig a hole in a concrete wall, is that they went in there with some instrument, and it sends a message that they were not searched, and that their cell was not searched,” he said.
“It is clear that there was a supervision problem and that enough vigilance was not exercised. I know that there will be an investigation.”
In all, four people have been charged with businesswoman Shevon Gordon’s murder.
Aiden Bowen, of Blueberry Hill, Wismar, Linden; Anthony Primo, 29, of 153 Laing Avenue, and Robin Maxwell Thomas, 22, of Lot 120 West Montrose, East Coast Demerara, had first appeared in court in May.
ROBIN MAXWELL THOMAS
Stafrei Hopkinson, 30, of Lot 129, Laing Avenue, West Ruimveldt, Georgetown, was arrested and charged with Gordon’s murder in November. He was also slapped with several armed robbery charges.
Yesterday, Shevon Gordon’s son, Devon, who was shot in the right leg during the attack on his mother, turned up at the court only to be told that the case was put down to February next year.
The slain woman’s husband, Fitzroy Elon Gordon, described the escape as “a set up”, and expressed concern for the safety of his son, who is the key witness in the matter.
“This is very serious and I’m very perturbed, I would like to see the Minister of Public Security, pay very keen interest in this matter.”
Gordon said that he heard of the men’s escape around 07.00 hrs yesterday. He said that while on the road at Mackenzie around 04.00 hrs, he saw two police ranks in a car and they said that they were looking for “two boys”.
He said that he did not take it too serious at the time, as it had never crossed his mind that the “two boys” were the same suspects in his wife’s murder.
“I want to see them brought to justice; when I was reminded about the court day yesterday, I said that at last something is going to happen – but I never expected this.”
Shevon Gordon was shot after she resisted two armed bandits who had accosted her after she stepped out of her truck. She was also relieved of a bag containing money.
The businesswoman was later pronounced dead on arrival at the Linden Hospital complex.
Anyone with information that may lead to the arrest of Stafrei Hopkinson Alexander and Robin Maxwell Thomas is asked to contact the police on telephone numbers 444-3406,
444-3274, 444-3512, 226-9941, 225-6411, 911 or the nearest police station.
All information will be treated with strict confidence.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
A false panacea for electoral integrity
…Peeping Tom kaieteur News – Advocates for fingerprint verification in Guyana’s elections herald it as... more
Rising Gun Crimes in the Caribbean: Urgent Action required by all
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News – There is an alarming surge in gun-related violence, particularly among younger... more
Weekend Cartoon
