Crime Chief Seelall Persaud yesterday said that two of the men killed by police in last week’s Prashad Nagar ‘shootout’ died after sustaining two gunshot wounds and that the third may have received more.
Peter Anthony Ogle, called ‘Skin teeth,’ 46, of Bartica, Leon Gittens, called ‘Cow,’ 24, of Albouystown and Quincy Alexander, 33, of Meadow Brook Gardens were shot dead one week ago at the Lot 93 Premniranjan Place home of a miner, where police said they went to commit a robbery and traded shots with lawmen who confronted them.
The police force’s account has, however, been challenged by other persons at the scene, who are among those that have said the men were shot multiple times although they were caught.
Asked to verify the amount of times the men had been shot, Persaud told Stabroek News that while the investigation into the matter, which is being handled by the force’s Office of Professional Responsibility and the Criminal Investigation Department, has not yet been concluded, the autopsies have revealed that each of the men had been shot twice. One of them may have been shot more than two times, he noted.
The families of the men, when contacted, told this newspaper that they were informed by officials at the Georgetown Public Hospital morgue that the men had succumbed as a result of gunshot wounds to the head. Ogle’s sister, in particular, said that when she went to identify him after the shooting, she noticed multiple gunshots wounds across his body.
Meanwhile, Persaud added that a fourth man, who had been held afterward, has since been released on bail.
The official police statement on the shooting said that ranks staked out the house after learning that some persons had planned to carry out a robbery there. The three men, two of whom had guns, entered the premises at around 10:05am, police said, adding that they were challenged by ranks. The armed men opened fire on the ranks, who returned fire, hitting all three of them, police added.
A .357 magnum revolver with two live rounds and a spent shell along with a .32 Taurus pistol with nine live rounds and three rounds that had snapped were recovered at the scene, according to the police.
Despite the conflicting reports of what transpired on the day of the shooting, the ranks involved have been openly praised by acting police commissioner Leroy Brumell. “I am told that three gunmen tried to invade a man’s privacy and they were shot… But I think we should be glad that we have three less (bandits) and two (less) firearms on the road,” he said, one day after the shooting.
Asked to respond to reports that there was no gunfight between the men and police, Brumell said, “Listen, what the media can do for us is to put at the front of the papers, all bandits fatiguing persons, harassing people. If persons kill and rob people you don’t hear any voice, you don’t hear any voice, if anything happen you hear the police always late and sometimes if the police respond and take actions why do we have to answer all these questions…?”
He added that people only talk when the police take action and stressed that “we want to rid this country of certain things and I wouldn’t say we would want to go about murdering people. If we catch people doing that we would deal with them.”
