Acting Crime Chief Louis Crawford and Commander of ‘C’ Division Balram Persaud have both refuted reports in the media that a cellular phone was found on the body of Courtney James.
James was shot by a policeman in civilian clothes during a short chase along Mandela Avenue, Alexander Village on Monday. The man was a primary suspect in more than 30 robberies including the April 20 attack on Magistrate Nigel Hawke and his wife. James was also reported to have raped six of his victims during the robberies.
Courtney James
In yesterday’s edition of the Kaieteur News an article captioned ‘Police cell numbers found in phone recovered from dead bandit’ said: “Investigators in the Guyana Police Force have questioned some ranks whose telephone numbers appeared on a cellular phone that was recovered” from James.
A Guyana Times article published yesterday under the headline ‘Traffic policeman was in contact with wanted man’ said: “Police ranks who shot and killed Courtney James on Monday had recovered his cellular phone and found that the cell number of one of their colleagues had appeared many times on the phone”.
Responding to these reports yesterday Crawford and Persaud said they were “strange” and “untrue”.
“This is untrue,” Crawford said yesterday.
A cellular phone was never recovered on James’ body, the police said. The ‘C’ Division Commander explained that several cellular phones were recovered from a house in Haslington, East Coast Demerara during a police raid last Saturday; but those items were probably stolen property.
“Cellular phones were recovered at the house in Haslington and people’s [police officers] names were found stored,” Persaud said yesterday. “But the fact remains that these phones are probably stolen property and police are investigating.”
Persaud stressed that yesterday’s media reports “seem to have jumped to conclusions”. The now dead James had committed over 30 robberies and might have stolen the cellular phones on which the names of police officers were found.
The police, Persaud said, worked with evidence.
Police, in a press release on Monday, said James shot at a policeman leading to an exchange in which he was killed. However, an eyewitness had reported that the policeman discharged the first shot at James when the man was several yards away from the bus. The shot hit James, who began staggering. The policeman discharged a second shot, which caused the fleeing man to collapse. Several other witnesses recalled hearing two gun shots, which they said were both fired by the plain clothes policeman.
The press statement also said that “a .32 revolver with three live rounds and two spent shells,” was recovered by the police. James, according to police, was seen by member of a mobile police patrol jumping over a fence in Alexander Village. James was challenged by the policeman, the release said, and he discharged two rounds at the officer, who returned fire hitting him about the body.
James, police had further said, managed to elude them on Saturday last in Haslington. During a raid conducted by police on a building in Haslington the wanted man was spotted. He managed to escape by jumping from the building in which he was seen.
An AK-47 rifle with eight matching rounds and a .32 Taurus revolver were recovered by the ranks and Christopher Higgins, who has since been charged with four counts of robbery under arms, was arrested during the search. However, the police indicated that ballistic tests carried out on the AK-47 revealed that weapon was not linked to the East Coast crime scenes.
Magistrate Hawke had reported that his attacker, later identified as James, was armed with an AK-47. James’ fingerprints were also found at the scene of the Hawkes robbery. Army Chief of Staff Commodore Gary Best confirmed on Tuesday that the weapon was one from the set of 30 which went missing.
….yes i was expecting a response like this from the police….how are we to know if it’s true or not…well Guyana is a small place and peter will tell tom who will eventually tell his best friend and so on and so forth…
how did your case go with the the people hope all was well with u,an that is over now so that u can move on with your life an be happy.
the case was dismissed my friend…out through the windows.
Delighted for you, Sandy. I wish you peace of mind and success.
That’s why I constantly bloged, I never liked to jump to conclusion/s, I also bloged yesterday, “Reporters needs to get their facts straight, b4 printing, whatever is thrown out to us readers, causes us to blog about incidents that r sometimes untrue.
Some popos lies, some news reporters r lax in their investigations, quick for a print off, now KN is printing what was not checked, is KN at fault, or the popos untruthful again?.
some po po lies and some news repotas r lax?
dont repotas lie too??
dont be like dem now….a lie is a lie
And some people like to give de mouth nuff liberty. They talk because they can
That’s why I said they (reporters) must get their facts straight, would reporters lie and place themself into a law suit,? they report lies, what the know it all people say,( he say, she say,) without proper investigation, if u know any tell me nah. lol.
SN get you report right next time, don’t copy from others.
an apology is needed.
…an some ahdem duz rite tuh ,, but the world is not a globe ,, the lens is ,,, so we have to have them in the equation ,,
stolen property.yes rite!!!!!!!!!!!
No cell numbers found. Right.
TAKE ALL THE PHONES TO THE PHONE COMPANY AN LET THEM SAY WHO IS THE OWERS OF THE PHONES, THAT HOW WE WILL GET THE FACTS .
jus like how dem en want fuh tell we now ,, dem gon tell we dem ????????
the police motto is – shoot to kill and ask questions latta
hahah…who they asking…the ghost? lol
Ya right, some don’t know, it happens, how many cops here don’t shoot, then ask questions later, and find themselves with a law suit and thrown off the force later and/or sent to jail.
Look at those young men here in NA, cops shot many and lied that they had gun/s, never 4get AD and the rest here.
I am sorry to say that I don’t believe this article today.
They are trying to cover things up and that is bad reporting, if the criminal was communicating with a traffic cop, you must look into why they were communicating and take it from there.
I agree, Georgia.
just as the probability exists that the phone(s) were stolen, the probability exists that they weren’t, isn’t it? so how about some real police work. for example find out who the phone really belongs to, establish when it was stolen and from this all calls made after that date would mean that the person who stole it was using it, such data can be obtained from the phone company. just a thought.
just as the probability exists that the phone didn’t belong to the bandit, the probability exists that it did. we shouldn’t be hearing about probability from the police p.r.o. we should be hearing about investigation. fine out who the owner of the phone is, establish when it was stolen and from there on you will know whoever stole the phone made calls from the date it was stolen, records can be obtained from the phone company. is it that the police don’t want to investigate or they don’t know how? unfortunately many people are of the opinion it’s the former rather than the latter.
… same ip address as above …
Dis ting about phone,mek me rememba the phone calls on the dead man’s phone.Ah think it was two phones.The matter ah taking about,is the Lindo Creek Massacre.Some soldier had a phone,that somebody find at Linden.Ah don’t have a good memory,but up to now,the Police,na saying nothing.Then they had something what that chap Lawyer ship back to America,and the Police seize it.Leh me stop,dem thing dis does confuse me brain.