Essequibo police are still on high alert as they try to recapture a prison escapee who is now suspected of murder.
And according to Prisons Director Dale Erskine, the man’s escape was not publicized since it was not normal procedure for all escapes from that prison to be advertised since in most cases the men would be recaptured shortly after.
“But when we feel that they could pose a threat then we publicize” Erskine told Stabroek News in a comment yesterday.
Ronald Daniels escaped from the Mazaruni institution since December last year and it was only when a report on his flight and escapades appeared in the January 21 Sunday Stabroek that the public knew he was on the run. His photo which appears on this page and on page 1 had not been released prior to yesterday.
While the man, who is originally from Bethany village in Essequibo, has been able to evade police capture, residents of his community had reported seeing the man in the village several times.
Asked why it had been so hard for the local authorities to capture Daniels, Erskine said the man was very familiar with his environment and this has made the task for the officers much more difficult.
An Essequibo man, Indar Gajadar, the owner of a logging concession was shot dead on February 28 and though police in Essequibo have not named the escapee as a suspect Commander of that division, Gavin Primo, has said that the description of the suspect fits that of the escaped prisoner.
The police also arrested five other men and searched a number of homes in the area.
According to reports reaching this newspaper Gajadar and one of his workers were cutting logs in the sandpit backlands when a man with a shotgun approached them.
At that time Gajadar was allegedly told by the man to hand over his chainsaw and he refused and the man pointed the gun to Gajadar’s right rib cage and pulled the trigger and then left the scene.
Primo had said earlier that they had received reports that Daniels is usually sheltered by persons in the Bethany community.
Asked whether there had been any recent sighting of the prisoner prior to the shooting incident, Primo said no, but acknowledged that they had received reports of Daniels terrorizing persons working in the backlands. (Heppilena Ferguson)
