Joint services combing Mazaruni for escaped prisoners

The Joint Services yesterday continued to comb the Region Seven area for prisoners Carlton Sampson and Seon Hopkinson who escaped from the Mazaruni Prison on Sunday.

Police in a release issued yesterday stated that the lawmen are continuing the search aimed at recapturing Sean Hopkinson, 27, of Blueberry Hill Squatting area, Linden, and  Stanleytown, Berbice and Carlton Sampson, 26, of Crane Old Road, West Coast Demerara (WCD) who escaped from the Mazaruni prison on Sunday.

According to reports, the Joint Services are leading a search team in the Mazaruni.

According to the police, Hopkinson and Sampson were among others who were on a recreational break in the prison compound when they were discovered missing at about 1 pm on Sunday.

Hopkinson was serving concurrent three-year sentences for robbery under arms, unlawful possession of firearm and unlawful possession of ammunition. Sampson was serving sentences for robbery under arms and escape from lawful custody.

In November 2010, Hopkinson was sentenced to six years imprisonment after he confessed to committing an armed robbery on three Banks DIH employees in Linden.

He appeared before Magistrate Ann McLennan  at the Christiansburg Magistrates’ Court charged with two counts of armed robbery, possession of an unlicensed firearm and possession of ammunition without licence.

The court heard that after committing the act, Hopkinson managed to escape into a housing area and hid in an incomplete septic tank where he subsequently surrendered.

This newspaper understands that in September 2008, Sampson had escaped from the Grove Police Station on the East Bank Demerara (EBD) and a few days later he was shot in his thigh during a confrontation with the police.

The man’s injury has resulted in him walking with a limp, a police source noted yesterday.