‘Cobra’ gives up, denies crimes

-says fears for life
Fugitive Tyrone Kacey Rowe, called ‘Cobra,’ surrendered to police amidst tears yesterday, while proclaiming his innocence in a range of crimes, including murder and armed robbery.

Tyrone Kacey Rowe

Rowe, 17, who was still being questioned by police up to press time last evening, said he believed the police force’s aim was to shoot him at the slightest opportunity. “Me ain’t do nothing! Me innocent! Me ain’t really do nothing fuh deh in trouble. These people want kill me,” he told reporters just after 9 am yesterday.

Days earlier, he had sought the help of social activist Mark Benschop, who arranged to meet him at the corner of D’Urban Street and Louisa Row yesterday.

At the scheduled meeting time, Rowe, dressed in a white vest, three quarter pants, a pair of leather slippers and a red cap, calmly emerged from an unfinished three-storey building. One of the persons who spoke to this newspaper later said that young men regularly occupied the building but Rowe was never seen there before yesterday.

A short while after Rowe spoke with media operatives, two police pick ups with plain clothes and uniformed ranks pulled up. Rowe, who was crying by that point, was told to cooperate with the police and he was subsequently handcuffed and transported to the Brickdam Police Station.

The police later said in an official statement Rowe surrendered around 9:30 am. A senior police officer at the Brickdam Police Station, police added, had earlier received a phone call from a reporter who said that members of the media were with the wanted man who was willing to turn himself over to the police. The police acted promptly on this information and went to the meeting place, where Rowe was arrested.

During an interview with reporters, Rowe said he was unaware of why he was wanted.  “I don’t know what is all this talk about they want me. I don’t know if they want fuh kill me or wha,” he said, adding that previously someone had accused him of shooting at them and he believes that this is what “they (the police) hottin’ me up about and sehing but how I doing crime. I doing night time crime, day time crime and I shooting people but me ain’t do nothing like that.”

At one point during the interview, Rowe removed his vest to show that he had no injuries on his body.

He went on to say that he decided to turn himself in since he was innocent.

When asked if the perpetrators behind the execution of his brother, Jamal ‘Radio’ Beete were really after him, Rowe said that he did not know. Rowe, who will turn 18 later this month, also denied that he was involved in the August 5 armed robbery at Plaisance that left two men dead, including an alleged accomplice, Anthony Taylor, 24, of Charlestown. “I ain’t tellin’ no lie. Me ain’t went nowhere there. I ain’t been nowhere by Plaisance so they ain’t got nobody who could say that I go and rob anybody. Me don’t go and do stupidness suh,” he stressed.

During the interview, Rowe contacted someone on his phone and gave the person on the other end directions to where he was. Minutes later, he burst into tears, saying that he was wanted a long time but “they (the police) ain’t coming fuh me.”

With the tears rolling down his cheeks, an agitated Rowe recalled that around 4 am recently, police circled the Le Repentir cemetery, where he was hiding, but he managed to elude capture. “Four o’clock de morning, dem men circle de whole burial ground and I was in there. I tell you boy them man ain’t catchin’ me to carry me in”.

Thankful

Outside the Brickdam Station, Rowe’s mother, Donna Beete, said she had received a call informing her that he had surrendered. She said she was thankful that he had turned himself over, since she feared that he would have been killed.

Beete, struggling to remain composed, said that she had already lost a son and could not afford to lose another. She said that she prayed a lot and endured many sleepless nights over the situation. “I don’t see him. I don’t see him.  I can’t say no, I can’t say yes that he was involved in these things the police accusing him of. I leave everything in God’s hands,” she said when asked about the allegations made against Rowe. “You make your children, you don’t make their minds. I wasn’t there for him. I give him to his grandmother at eight months.”

Following the killing of Jamal Beete in June, his sister Malika had said that the last time they had seen Rowe was when he was 13 years old. At the time, Malika said Rowe was attending school. She added that he was already getting into trouble for petty crimes and was always in fights. She said too at one point, her mother tried to correct the bad behaviour but Rowe’s grandmother was very upset at the intervention, saying that there was nothing wrong with him.

Rowe’s grandmother died in February and several months after police began linking him to armed robberies.
Anonymous caller

Meanwhile, Benschop recalled that several days ago, a man called him saying that he wanted to talk to him privately. The caller, Benschop said, told him that Rowe wanted to surrender but did not know how to do it or who to turn to.

Earlier yesterday, Benschop explained, someone claiming to be Rowe called him and said that he wanted to turn himself in and that he was afraid of the police. “He said that he doesn’t know who to trust and that he feels that I can hand him over to the police without being injured or killed. So, I decided to contact other members of the media to do it the right way because I think that was the only way. If somebody is wanted and they are willing to turn themselves in, I think police should accept that surrender,” he said.

Benschop added that in light of the development he hoped that Rowe would get justice and that the police will thoroughly investigate the allegations. He pointed out that in the past there were situations where wanted men never came in alive to tell their side and all that the public heard were the police allegations against them. He noted that with Rowe surrendering, he would get the opportunity to tell his side and it would be left up to the courts to make the final decision. “As long as they don’t shoot at the police, as long as they don’t endanger any member of the public, if they peacefully turn themselves in or hand themselves over to the police, that is what I would say a decent society is all about,” Benschop said. “The police cannot act as the judge, jury and executioner at no point in time. Let us hope that this is a turning point in our country where people feel comfortable handing themselves over to members of the force without being executed.”

Meanwhile, Stabroek News understands that the police are seeking Rowe’s girlfriend, who rented a house at Crane, West Coast Demerara, where the wanted man would occasionally stay. Earlier in the week, police swooped down on the building but came up empty-handed. A senior police officer told this newspaper that ranks raided the property twice after but Rowe again escaped.

The woman who rented out the property has been in police custody for about three days and the officer said that she will be released on bail soon.

Up to press time last night, it was unclear if this had been done.