Releasing ‘Fineman’ videotapes now will put persons at risk – Jagdeo

Even with the Joint Services’ recent success in the slaying of wanted men Rondell `Fineman’ Rawlins and Jermaine `Skinny’ Charles, the much talked about video footage showing the notorious Buxton gang in operation, would not be released since government believes that many of the elements are still out there.

The revelation of the existence of such tapes first came to the fore when President Bharrat Jagdeo, at a media briefing back in June, told reporters that the Joint Services were in possession of tapes in which Rawlins and others were featured aback of the troubled East Coast Demerara village.

Speaking to reporters following the conclusion of the orientation session for Cuban Scholarship Awardees yesterday, Jagdeo said the video tapes would not be released as that would betray where they were taken from and might put persons at risk.

“We still feel that there may be elements of the gang that are out there and we are actively pursuing them now. In fact I had a report that they are still looking for some members of the gang,” he responded in answer to a question about whether the tapes would be released now that the two notorious men are dead.

The President stressed that even though “Fineman and Skinny” along with several other gang members are dead, there are still others out there adding that those the criminals have “a support infrastructure that we are trying to dismantle”.

Acting on a tip-off, last Thursday teams from the Joint Services Operation Group and the Guyana Defence Force Special Force along with members of the Special Forces proceeded to an area in Timehri about 500 metres east of the GDF ammunition dump. There, the lawmen said, they came under fire from shooters in an identifiable house. They returned fire and saw three men running from the house. When they descended on the scene they found the body of a man who was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The man was identified as Seon Grant.

The two men who had fled ended up in Kuru Kururu at a place villagers call Kakabura in a small, unfinished concrete structure. There was an exchange of gunfire around 12.45 pm in which two men, later identified as Rawlins and Charles, were killed.