- cops seeking older brother
French police say they are “almost certain” that Troy James, the Guyanese deportee who was gunned down in French Guiana on Monday, was killed by an older brother. James had been convicted on crack cocaine charges and spent ten months in jail before being sent back to Guyana, the police said.

Troy James

So far the suspect has not been apprehended and sources have told Stabroek News that he returned to Guyana through Suriname and was spotted as recently as Wednesday. The circumstances of the shooting are unclear but this newspaper has been told that the two brothers had a falling out that sparked the fatal shooting. Both brothers were residing in French Guiana illegally.

A Stabroek News source in French Guiana made contact with press officer Lieutenant-Colonel Laperle from the Central Gendarmerie and was informed that James was killed on Monday around 7 pm (6 pm local time) in Remire-Montjiloy, a town in the suburb of Cayenne. ”We think he has been shot by his brother and we are looking for him actually,” the officer was quoted by the source as saying.

James sustained three bullets wounds to the thorax (chest) at close range. Four bullet shells were found close to the body. The officer added that the killing took place less than ten metres from a soccer field, where young players of a local team–USL Montjiloy–were training. The coach, former international French goalkeeper Bernard Lama, was leading the training sessions and he was the one who contacted the police. According to the officer, most of the players did not hear the gunshots.

The policeman further said that James had been arrested for crack dealing in 2005 and later convicted in court. He spent ten months in jail in French Guiana after which he was given a paper in 2006 ordering that he leave the country immediately. He left the country but returned in April this year, the officer added.

The source later told this newspaper that the local daily paper, France-Guyane had reported that the two brothers were living together in a small house.

Meanwhile the local police said that no word has come from their French counterparts in relation to the investigation and while they know that James was shot and killed, they are not yet involved in the matter.

James’ mother, Rose Ann Garraway, called `Rosie’, told reporters that she received a telephone call from one of her son’s female friends around 7 pm on Monday informing her that he had just been shot and killed. The man’s relatives later received confirmation of his death from the French Consulate in Guyana.

Stabroek News was told that James had been working in French Guiana for the past few years and would return home periodically. His mother said she had warned him repeatedly about going to that country. “I told him that I don’t like there for him,” she said. She added whenever he was returning to the country, he would slip out when she was asleep so that she could not see him leaving.

Garraway said the last time she saw her son alive was when he returned home about two months ago. The man’s relatives had said that they were clueless as to what might have sparked the tragedy.
They had said that they would travel to French Guiana to retrieve the body for burial here.