Stabroek News has since been told that the man, an Agricola resident was fingered in an armed robbery committed on the Agricola Post Office earlier this month during which $300,000 was snatched.
Up to late yesterday afternoon the man was still in police custody.
An eyewitness who said he knows the man, explained that he (the arrested man) and his girlfriend were riding along John Street. “Same time de police din passin and like one ah dem man dem know he and dem police start firing shots,” the eyewitness said. According to him, the man started running and scaling fences to escape while the woman rode away on the bicycle.
No one recalled seeing the man firing at the ranks. At least six gunshots were heard.
The incident occurred around 1.55 pm and when this newspaper arrived less than ten minutes after, several armed policemen dressed in navy blue were searching yards on Norton Street near John Street.
The policemen cranked their guns as they searched and made no attempts to restrain the sizeable crowd that had gathered.
Residents and passersby raised concerns about the police shooting wildly when there were people around and questioned why the area wasn’t cordoned off.
The occupants of one yard told this newspaper that they were doing some carpentry when they heard the shots but didn’t see anything. One woman, after the shots were fired, ran out of her home leaving her young children behind. She stood there as the ranks searched her yard.
A van load of policemen later arrived and after about five minutes of searching, the man was found hiding in a yard. He was pushed into the tray of one of the police vehicles and hit in his head with a gun.
Seconds before driving off, one of the ranks instructed the man to put his hands behind his back so that he could tie them with a string he had.
