Police stumped

Five months have passed since unknown gunmen shot at a pickup on the Ogle Airstrip Road injuring two persons and though police had expressed interest in four men and arrested several, no one has been held accountable.

Crime Chief Seelall Persaud told this newspaper that some arrests were made and those persons were placed on identification parades. They were subsequently released, he added. Since then, no new information has been gathered by the investigators.

One of the survivors, Vanessa Mendonca who was hospitalized for one week having sustained wounds to her knee said she has put the matter behind her and left God in charge of everything.

She said that the police had visited her shortly after the incident but since then she has heard nothing else.
For her, that day is just a distant memory but she is thankful to God that she managed to survive, the near-death experience.
Around noon on July 15, Michael Jackson, an employee of an interior charter service was transporting Margaret Maxius, a co-worker, two female cleaners inclusive of Mendonca and a porter out of the Ogle Aerodrome. As the black pickup truck turned on to the access road they saw a maroon-coloured car parked at the side of the road and men holding long guns standing nearby. As the vehicle approached, the men began shooting.
The men then re-entered their car and followed Jackson’s vehicle, shooting wildly as the vehicles sped down the road.
Despite being shot in the buttocks, Jackson continued driving and managed to reach the Sparendaam Police Station.
Jackson and Mendonca who sustained cuts from broken glass were rushed to the Georgetown Hospital where they were treated and admitted.
Jackson was subsequently flown overseas for further medical attention.

Police subsequently went to the scene and retrieved a 7.62 x 39 spent shell and a warhead.
The police said that they were treating the incident as an attempted robbery and expressed an interest in four men with the call names `Trini’; `Yankee’; `Capone’ and `Sandman’.

A good explanation was never given as to how the police came up with the call names but a senior police officer on the East Coast had said that the men were known to the police and it was based on investigations that they were wanted for questioning.
The men later turned themselves it but were released.

Days after the incident police arrested two women and a man after a red AT 192 motor car believed to have been used in the attack, was found at a Norton Street house.