Police yesterday said that the relatives of murdered Mc Doom miner Gavin Mc Neil are “stymieing the investigations” after they refused to attend an identification parade for a second time.
The relatives who were the victims of an armed robbery during which Mc Neil was shot and killed first refused on February 27 shortly after the first suspect had been held.
According to a police press release issued yesterday the actions of the man’s relatives are stalling the investigations which are “being vigorously pursued by the police”. The second identification parade had been scheduled for Tuesday.
Days after the first suspect was arrested Crime Chief Seelall Persaud had told Stabroek News that because of the relatives’ lack of cooperation, investigators were forced to release the man on bail.
It is unclear when the second suspect was arrested but this newspaper was told that this was the person who was initially fingered in the incident.
Without the assistance of the relatives the case cannot move forwards as they were the ones who witnessed the incident. Security sources had told this newspaper that while the incident had th
e appearance of an armed robbery gone bad, it is suspected that there was more to the man’s death. Mc Neil had previously operated his dredging operation in Venezuela not far from the border with Guyana.
Police had said in a press release that around 7.55 pm on February 19, a gang of men attacked McNeil, his two daughters aged 12 and 14 years old and his mother-in-law, June Elwin, 49, moments after they arrived home.
The release said that as McNeil was parking his vehicle, the others proceeded to the house, where they were confronted by the robbers. Elwin said there were five of them.
According to the police, the men, two of whom were armed with guns and the others with knives and cutlasses, forced their captives to call out to McNeil’s wife, Melissa McNeil, 32, who opened the door for them. Melissa had stayed home since she was feeling unwell.
The armed men then took away an undisclosed sum of cash, a quantity of jewellery and a cell phone and escaped.
It was as they were making their way out of the compound that they shot McNeil four times to his neck and shoulder.
He was later pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
