Police are hunting for a 23-year-old man believed to be behind the recent attack at the home of Magistrate Nigel Hawke and other armed robberies and crimes committed in several East Coast Demerara villages.
Yesterday, police issued a wanted bulletin for Courtney James of no fixed place of abode.
Without going into the specifics, the bulletin stated that James is wanted by the police in connection with a recent spate of armed robberies and other attacks and the “police are calling on him to give himself up”.
Anyone with information that can lead to the arrest of James who is 5 ft 9 ins tall, dark and slimly built is being urged to contact the police. All information will be treated with the strictest confidence.
Meanwhile, a senior police source has informed Stabroek News that investigators were led to the Lusignan house where a bullet-proof vest and a large quantity of ammunition was unearthed after receiving information about Magistrate Hawke’s stolen computer.
According to the officer, a businessman and his manager are in police custody over the illegal items.
The source went on to explain that James, who is suspected to be the gunman who invaded the magistrate’s home, in company with another man, approach-ed the businessman’s manager at his Lusignan home and offered the magistrate’s stolen lap top computer for sale.
However, the men left after the manager told them that his employer was not there. They never returned.
It was based on information received that the police turned up at the house around 11 am and while conducting a search found the bullet-proof vest, 30 rounds of .357 ammunition and 40 rounds of 9 mm ammunition.
The men, who were in the house and were detained after the discovery reportedly told investigators that they had the items for their protection in the light of last year’s Lusignan massacre in which 11 men, women and children were slaughtered by a gang of heavily armed gunmen.
Stabroek News was told that the men will be charged with illegal possession of the items shortly.
