Cops came under fire responding to robbery plot report – source

Late Tuesday night when joint services ranks opened fire on supposed gunmen reportedly hiding in the cane-fields aback of North Ruimveldt, they were really responding to a report of a robbery plot and when they arrived they  came under heavy gunfire from two men in a car, a senior police source said yesterday.

The source also informed this newspaper that wanted man Jermaine `Skinny’ Charles was never seen on that night by the ranks and his name only came up when persons contacted them after the shoot-out and said that Charles, who is facing thirteen murder charges but managed to escape from the Sparendaam Police Station last month, was in the area.

Stabroek News was told that the joint services received intelligence on Tuesday night that “some men” were going to commit a robbery in North Ruimveldt. As a result, the ranks went to the area to thwart the crime but when they arrived they were greeted with heavy gunfire from two men in a car. One managed to escape in the car, sources said, while the second man ran into the canefield.

It is unclear how exactly the car managed to leave the scene, which by then was surrounded by heavily armed ranks but the sources believe that there was some amount of “bungling” by the ranks that night.

This newspaper was told that there has been no positive sighting of ‘Skinny’ since he slipped through a loosened floor board in the Sparendaam Police Station lock-ups. The sources said that from all reports the duo that shot at the police were unmasked.

Sources had told this newspaper that shortly before the incident, suspicious elements were seen in North Ruimveldt and may have fled to the back of the community which is separated by the ‘Blacka’ canal by cane-fields.