Crum Ewing murder probe stalled

Apr 19, 2016 News

-Legal Advisor requests file from Crime Chief
The investigations into the murder of social Activist Courtney Crum Ewing appear to have been halted

Courtney Crum-Ewing

for no apparent reason.
Ever since the release of four well known individuals— Liaison Officer at the Office of the President (OP) under the PPP government, Kwame McCoy; former OP staff, Jason Abdulla; self confessed ‘Hit Man’, Sean Hinds and Okenny Fraser, the investigations seem to be at a standstill.
Kaieteur News understands that the file on the matter remains in the possession of the police despite a request by the Force’s Legal Advisor, retired Judge Justice Claudette Singh, to review it.
This newspaper was reliably informed that the parents of the murdered activist had visited Justice Singh and had pleaded for her intervention. They secured a promise.
When contacted by this newspaper yesterday, Justice Singh confirmed that she did make a request to Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum for the file, but so far she has not received it.
On March 10 last year, two months before the regime changing General Elections, Crum Ewing, who was urging persons to vote against the then ruling party, was gunned down in Diamond New Scheme, East Bank Demerara.
Many persons are still convinced that Crum-Ewing was assassinated for his political conviction. The blame game was played out between the two sides of the political divide.
Five months later after the swearing in of the new government, police finally instituted a murder charge against well known convict, 37 year old Reagan ‘Grey Boy’ Rodrigues.

Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum

But it is widely known that more than one person carried out the act. Fingers were pointed to persons connected with the former ruling party.
In February, the Crime Chief had explained that a file was prepared and sent to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) for advice on whether charges should be instituted against McCoy, Hinds, Abdullah and Fraser.
“Having perused those statements in that file, the DPP would have advised that we conduct further investigation so we are hoping to complete that investigation as early as possible before we return that file to the DPP,” Blanhum had pointed out.
According to the Crime Chief, the arrest of the four suspects was based on some new developments.
“Because of the complex nature of that investigation, time did not permit us to complete it. Nevertheless, the individuals were released on their own recognizance and have been reporting to the police to assist us with our investigation,” Blanhum had stated.
That was two months ago. Since then the police seem to be clueless on the way forward.