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Govt. orders probe into fatal shooting of suspected bandits
The scene at the seawall on March 15 with the three bodies on the ground.
Amid questions, an investigation has been ordered in relation to the deaths of three suspected bandits on the seawall two weeks ago.
Yesterday, President David Granger, responding to media questions at State House, disclosed that the matter has been dealt with at the National Security Committee level.
The committee comprises the president, senior ministers and other security officials.
Granger noted that it is his “instructions” that on any occasion where there is the death of a person by an unnatural means, that death should be investigated, particularly in the defence of the police force.
He said that while he has not received a report on the matter on his desk, one was received by the Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan.
“We have ordered an investigation into the circumstances in which the men came to be killed and I believe that some actions will be taken to have the files sent to the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) to determine any “blameworthiness” in the deaths.”
The president said that in keeping with the Constitution of Guyana, a Coroner’s Inquest into the manner and cause of an individual’s death by unnatural means is therefore required.
The disclosures by the president would come a few days after a workman on a construction site at the Ministry of Education sports ground, Carifesta Avenue, claimed that he saw the shooting of the men, an account which contradicts the police version.
Earlier this week, McDoom resident, Devon Lyte, was part of a press conference with attorney-at-law Nigel Hughes, where he claimed that on March 15, the day of the incident, he was working on the roof of a building on the sports ground when he saw the police blocking off the seawall road, near Camp Street.
Shot dead: Dextroy ‘Dutty’ Cordis
He said his attention was drawn to a silver car following a dark-coloured one. There were shots being fired from the silver car. He said that the black vehicle stopped, then one person, presumed to be the driver, came out and stood at the driver’s door.
One person was seen coming out of the silver car, and he walked towards the black car.
“The person from the silver car started to beat the person who had come out from the driver’s side and was lying on the ground….After twenty minutes, I heard rapid gunfire. At the time when I heard the rapid gunfire, there was one person standing over the same person who was lying on the ground. About ten to fifteen minutes after the shooting, policemen from Camp Street started to run up the road. There was a photographer with them. They went to the scene. I also saw the ambulance arrive,” Lyte stated.
However, photos of the building on which Lyte was working on indicate that the “eyewitness” had remarkably good eyes. The distance was about two and a half ballfields away- about 1,000 feet.
Police, hours after the shootings, said that the three men, Dextroy ‘Dutty’ Cordis, 46, of Grove, East Bank Demerara; Kwame Assanah, of Buxton, East Coast Demerara, and Errol Adams aka Dynamite, 57, of Dartmouth, Essequibo Coast, and also of Buxton, were all shot dead in a confrontation.
Shot dead:
Kwame Assanah
The police said that they were alerted to the men who were trailing a customer who withdrew money from a Robb Street bank.
Cordis and Adams were known to the police, but family members insist that Assanah was not a bandit.
Law enforcement officials described the shooting as resulting from increased surveillance in response to the recent spate of robberies committed on customers after they had conducted financial transactions at various commercial banks.
Guyana had been under siege with a significant number of persons robbed and shot, after being trailed from the banks. There were deep suspicions that bank employees were working in alliance with bandits. This was never substantiated.
Public Security Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan, had disclosed that there are a number of strategies being worked on to catch the bandits, including sting operations.
Days after the shooting on March 15, Commissioner of Police (ag) David Ramnarine, publicly declared the use of force in this instance by the Guyana Police Force as justifiable.
Ramnarine said the officers acted in keeping with the law.
“They were fired upon and as law enforcement officers, who are authorised to use deadly force, as long as deadly force is justified, as long as the deadly force is legitimate, to defend themselves,” he said.
According to the Top Cop, the Guyana Police Force, based on intelligence gathering and public trust, has been able to put a dent on a gang that was targeting bank customers.
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