Police yesterday said that some of the spent shells found in the wake of the brutal assault by gunmen on four households at Lesbeholden, Black Bush Polder on Monday matched those retrieved in a similar assault at Bel West, Canal #2 Polder, West Bank Demerara last year.
One woman died in last year’s attack and one of the bandits was found dead in a trench. The bandit, who up to now has not been identified, was in possession at the time of one of the army’s missing AK-47 rifles.
Police in a statement yesterday disclosed that further examination of the spent shells found at the robbery scene at Black Bush Polder revealed that 10 of the 13 7.62x 39 spent shells recovered matched four 7.62X 39 spent shells found at the murder/robbery scene at Bel West, Canal #2, West Bank Demerara on October 25, 2006. The police statement said that following intense investigations several persons were arrested in relation to the Lesbeholden attack and placed in custody. Charges are likely to be instituted shortly and the manhunt for the perpetrators has been intensified.
On the night of the attacks at Canal #2 Polder a heavily-armed gang wrought havoc on two households. The gunmen, who were dressed in black clothing and wearing military-type boots shot three people during the spree and mercilessly beat several others. During the assault the bandits robbed and beat the Gharbarran and Mahadeo families. Jadunauth Mahadeo and his wife Kowsilla and Vickram Bharrat.
The Police had said back in October last year that of the 36 7.62×39 and three 7.62×51 spent shells found at the robbery scene at Canal Number Two Polder, three 7.62×51 matched two 7.62×51 casings found at the murder scene of former Minister of Agriculture, Satyadeow Sawh and his siblings, Phulmattie Persaud, Rajpat Sawh and security guard, Curtis Robertson on April 22 2006.
Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee has indicated that the robbery at Black Bush Polder resembled the one at Canal #2 and he had questioned whether the attack in Berbice was an act of terror or a test of the law enforcement agencies. “Like those people of Canal Number Two Polder, the people in Black Bush Polder are not rich people they are poor farmers. So the question arises as to whether the exercise was aimed at striking terror or testing the posture of the law enforcement agency in the Corentyne,” Rohee had said. He had noted that it would appear that at least one of two gangs that have been in operation in the Canje/New Amsterdam area committed the act.
On the night of the Lesbeholden robbery the gunmen used crowbars and other house-breaking implements to gain entry to the four homes.
Dhanraj Bisham, 17, who was shot in his upper right leg, is still a patient at the New Amsterdam Hospital.
