Grenade attack at KN…Cops check abandoned car for possible link

Jun 07, 2016 Features / Columnists, News

Police are examining a grey Toyota Spacio that may be linked to last Saturday night’s grenade threat on Kaieteur News.

Crime Chief Wendel Blanhum said that the vehicle was found abandoned in the vicinity of Norton Street and Mandela Avenue, shortly after a grenade was thrown at the vehicle of Kaieteur News publisher, Glenn Lall.

A demolition expert secures the device.

Kaieteur News understands that police have received reports that the vehicle was abandoned shortly after the driver struck down an elderly woman.
On Sunday, an individual reportedly told the police that the carjackers had stolen the car from the owner. Police are reportedly trying to locate the owner.
The vehicle fits the description of the grey Toyota Spacio from which an individual tossed a fragmentation grenade at Mr. Lall’s vehicle.
A source said that the explosives experts detonated the grenade in the vicinity of the Georgetown seawalls yesterday.
“They had to detonate it because it was unstable, since the pin was out,” a source said.
According to the source, the grenade differs from those that are used by the Guyana Defence Force.
Kaieteur News was told that the grenades in stock at the army have detonators that can be removed.
The grenade that was thrown outside Kaieteur News reportedly had a built-in detonator, which necessitated the experts having to explode the device.
Experts have said that it was nothing short of “a miracle” that the device didn’t explode when it was thrown.
When fragmentation grenades explode, the fragments are hurled with great force in different directions.
The source also said that the explosion would not have only caused extensive damage to Mr. Lall’s vehicle, but could have also triggered explosions to any other passing vehicles.
When the device was thrown, Mr. Lall and several staffers were in close proximity outside the Kaieteur News premises, where a wake was being held for Kaieteur News Assistant Editor Dale Andrews.
It was at around 22.00 hrs on Saturday that a security staffer heard an unusual sound near Mr. Lall’s vehicle, which was parked on the western side of Saffon Street.
Thinking at first that someone had shattered one of the windows, the staffer checked the vehicle, but observed no damage. However, on checking the front of the vehicle, the staffer spotted the grenade lying near one of the front tyres.
The police were immediately notified.
Video footage from a Kaieteur News CCTV camera shows the grey-coloured vehicle, which is heading north, slowing as it approaches Mr. Lall’s vehicle. The occupants then accelerated after the device was thrown.
Commander of ‘A’ Division, Clifton Hicken had said that some time around 22:30 hrs, the Ruimveldt police station received a call stating that a “bomb was thrown at Kaieteur News”.
Hicken related that after he was made aware of the situation, he then contacted the supervising officer at Ruimveldt Police Station and subsequently made his way to Kaieteur News.
He continued that upon arriving at the scene, they “discovered a grenade” and the bomb experts were summoned.
Hicken said that the experts were able to remove the grenade. He added that the grenade was found to be unstable as the pin was removed.
A Kaieteur News surveillance camera showed a heavily tinted grey, Spacio like vehicle slow up at Mr. Lall’s vehicle. Someone’s hand stretched out and a grenade was thrown towards the vehicle.

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One thought on “Grenade attack at KN…Cops check abandoned car for possible link”

BORAPORK June 7, 2016 at 3:57 pm

This was attempted murder and the perpetrators should be charged with such. These perpetrators are domestic terrorists.

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