Latest update February 16th, 2025 7:49 PM
Sep 10, 2012 News
Over one month after killing of Linden protesters…
“Sash Shaw (ballistic tests) took them about a day; that was priority. Agricola (in which eight people were killed) was given priority too. Bartica ballistic tests took between three to four days; Lindo Creek took about a week because the guys had to bring the things (bullet casings ) to Georgetown.” – police source
It took police ballistic experts about a week to match shells found at the scene of the Lindo Creek slaughter; a day to link warheads and bullets casings found at the Satyadeow Shaw murder scene; a week for the Agricola massacre; about four days for Bartica massacre; and about a similar period with the Lusignan slaughter.
And less than two weeks after the Joint Services killed Rondell ‘Fine Man’ Rawlins and Jermaine ‘Skinny’ Charles, police issued a statement linking firearms recovered from them to most of these killings.
But it appears to be taking the same ballistic experts more than a month to match shotgun cartridges they recovered at the scene of the Linden killings to any weapon.
Police and civilians have stated that police ranks were the only individuals who had firearms on the fateful day of July 18, when Shemroy Bouyea, 24, Ron Somerset, 19, and Ivan Lewis, 46, all of Wisroc, Linden were shot dead during protests in the community.
Seven days after the shooting, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud stated that only four shotgun cartridges were missing from the ammunition that police ranks had at the scene. He also said that the ranks who had shotguns had submitted statements.
But then confusion arose as to the type of ammunition that was used. After viewing the autopsies, Trinidadian forensic pathologist Professor Hubert Daisley told reporters that bronze-tipped metal fragments, suspected to have come from a handgun, were extracted from the three slain men.
But police sources who spoke with Kaieteur News said that ballistics experts identified the ‘fragments’ as copper-coated pellets that had come from shotgun cartridges. The sources said that the Guyana Police Force had similar cartridges in stock.
But in the Thursday, 02 August issue of the Guyana Chronicle, Deputy Commissioner of Police Seelall Persaud was quoted as stating that the shotgun pellets are not “police issued” pellets, since members of the Guyana Police Force do not use that type of cartridge. According to that story, Persaud said that the police are still checking to ascertain where those pellets came from. The story also quoted the Crime Chief as saying that the police had completed the ballistics tests. Persaud has subsequently told Kaieteur News around the same time that shotguns were the weapons used. He had added “we know who was armed with shotguns and we have statements from those who discharged rounds.”
Contradicting the Crime Chief’s statement that the ballistics tests were complete, Police Commissioner Leroy Brumell told reporters on August 17 that weapons used by police were still being tested. About a week ago, he told Kaieteur News that he had no idea whether the tests were complete and referred this newspaper to Crime Chief Persaud.
Some police sources have expressed bafflement that it has apparently taken the police ballistic experts over a month to identify the weapons. The sources pointed out that when former Agriculture Minister Satydeow Sawh, along with his sister, brother and a security guard were gunned down on April 22, 2006, the Force’s ballistic experts worked through the night to ascertain if recovered shells and warheads matched those found at similar execution-style killings.
“It took them about a day; that was priority,” an official said. “Agricola ( the massacre in which eight people, including an elderly couple, were killed) was given priority too. Bartica took between three to four days; Lindo Creek took about a week because the guys had to bring the things (warheads and bullet casings ) to Georgetown.”
Some two weeks after ‘Fine Man’ Rawlins and ‘Skinny’ were killed, police stated that ballistic tests on weapons recovered from the slain gunmen linked them to several murders.
According to a police statement, ballistic linked them to the murders of 47 people, including those who died in the massacres at Lusignan and Bartica.
In addition, police stated that the weapon found on Charles was linked to spent shells recovered from the Lindo Creek massacre of eight miners.
A press release from the Police Public Relations Office disclosed that the ballistics tests also confirmed that the weapon found in the possession of Rawlins was used in the killing of Agriculture Minister Satyadeow Sawh and three other persons at La Bonne Intention, East Coast Demerara, on April 22, 2006.
According to the police, the AK-47 rifle with serial number 415233 found on Jermaine Charles called ‘Skinny’ was one of the rifles stolen from the Guyana Defence Force.
The police said that it was used in the October 10th, 2006 attack at Number Two Canal Polder in which an elderly woman was killed.
The weapon was also used to commit the murders of two men at a liquor bar at Agriculture Road, East Coast Demerara.
The other weapon bearing serial number 9351441 which Rawlins had in his possession at the time of his death is linked to the murders committed on three MMC security guards at Two Brothers Gasolene Station at Eccles, East Bank Demerara on February 26, 2006.
Police said that the weapon was used the same night to kill an elderly couple, Hannah Cameron and David Brummell, at Lot 40 Second Street, Agricola, East Bank Demerara. The couple’s bodies were partially burnt.
Also the said night the weapon was used at the scene of the murder of City Hall official Lauvern Scott at Lot 115 Third Street, Agricola, East Bank Demerara.
Rawlins’ gun, the police said, was also used in an attack on a Professional Guard Service armoured van in which security guard Dexter Barry was shot dead on the Agricola Public Road, East Bank Demerara.
And in another attack on security personnel, the police disclosed that the weapon was used to kill MMC guards Warren Hutson and Rodwell Clarke at Sheribana Landing, Essequibo River on October 01 last year.
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