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.
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.
