Six detained in KN grenade attack probe

Jun 08, 2016 News

– 19-year-old driver among suspects

Police appear to be close to identifying the mastermind and motive behind Saturday night’s grenade attack on Kaieteur News, following the arrest of six people yesterday.

The impounded vehicle

The suspects include the 19-year-old driver of the grey Toyota Spacio, PSS 5252, that police found abandoned near Norton Street and Mandela Avenue, shortly after the device was thrown.
The driver is from Kitty and ‘A’ Division Commander Clifton Hicken said that those in custody are from Georgetown and Sophia. Commander Hicken said the driver had first claimed that he was the victim of a carjacking.
On being further questioned, he said that he had lent the vehicle to someone.
“We questioned him and this led to two others.” Three other individuals were then detained.
Hicken declined to say whether investigators believe that the impounded car is the same vehicle that was used in the attack. But he assured that the Force is “working assiduously” to crack the case.
“Fifteen detectives are working as we speak…we want to ensure that we tie everything up,” the Commander said, adding that members of the public have also provided investigators with information.
Kaieteur News observed that the left bumper of the impounded car has a dent, while the rear number plate was smeared with mud, as if to conceal the numbers. The front number plate is missing.

The words “Dream Chasers” are engraved on the front windscreen. A source said that the vehicle belongs to a Kitty businesswoman.
Kaieteur News understands that some time after the grenade attack, the 19-year-old driver had told ranks at the Alberttown Police Station that he was driving south along Albert Street, Alberttown, at around 22.30 hrs, when two men on a CG motorcycle rode up to him. He claimed that the pillion rider drew a handgun, forced him to stop, and then forced him out of the vehicle before driving away with it.
The vehicle fits the description of the grey Toyota Spacio from which an individual tossed a fragmentation grenade at Kaieteur News publisher Glenn Lall’s vehicle.
When the device was thrown, Mr. Lall and several staffers were in 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 accelerate after the device is thrown.
According to a 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 other passing vehicles.
United Kingdom High Commissioner, James Quinn, Government officials and the Guyana Press Association (GPA), among others, have condemned the act of terror against Kaieteur News.

One thought on “Six detained in KN grenade attack probe”

dezetante June 8, 2016 at 3:37 am

I do hope that Hickens does not MESS this case up. God is good.

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