Police have matched the spent shells found at the scene of the attack on the East La Penitence station on Tuesday night to those found at the scenes of the Lusignan and Bartica murders, providing for the first time a link between the two massacres.
In a press release issued last night, the force said, ballistics tests carried out on the twenty-three 7.62×39 spent shells recovered from East La Penitence revealed they were from rounds fired from two firearms and that the shells further matched those found that the scenes at Lusignan and Bartica.
The results also linked the shells to a robbery/murder at Canal Number 2, West Bank Demerara during 2006, the release added, and investigations are ongoing into the attack on the station.
Prior to this, there had been no police statement in relation to ballistics evidence linking the Lusignan killings – thought to be the work of the Buxton/Agricola gunmen – to those at Bartica in February. However, President Bharrat Jagdeo had taken the leap in announcing two days after 12 persons were killed in Bartica that the murderers were the same men who had slaughtered 11 people at Lusignan in January. Jagdeo later repeated the statement that the two killings were linked.
