A miner died from a bullet yesterday afternoon after gunning down two persons at a Middle Street business and shooting dead two cops who responded to the scene during a hair-raising standoff that drew dozens of cops.
The dead miner was identified as 52 year old Deryck Khanai of 315 Middle Street, while the slain police officers were identified as Lance Corporal 20293 Michael Forde, and Constable 18053 Sherwin Pantliz. The other two persons killed were Vanessa Williams, who functioned as a dispatcher for Crown Cabs, a taxi service operated from the bottom flat of Khanai’s home, and 71-year-old Hugh Rowland, a resident of the area.
A fifth person, Paul Reman was injured and taken to the Georgetown Hospital, where up to last evening he continued to receive treatment. He sustained two bullet wounds to the abdomen. Up to press time no motive was established for Khanai’s murderous rampage though he had expressed fears for his life and at hinted of something dire happening to him. Why he was a licensed firearm holder was also being questioned yesterday as in 2010 he had shot himself in the chin.
Khanai is said to be responsible for the deaths and injuries to the police ranks and the civilians, but up to press time last evening a brother of Khanai’s, Aubrey Khanai, told Stabroek News that they did not know if he took his own life, or if he died at the hands of police officers. “I ask the police if he shoot heself and the commander saying they don’t know.” and I don’t know, I just like the police, I don’t know.”
In a statement released yesterday, the GPF said that around 13:30 yesterday they responded to a report that an armed man was discharging his weapon indiscriminately at Middle and East streets. Upon arriving at the scene, police say, they discovered the bodies of Williams and Rowland lying on Middle Street. They were taken to the Hospital where they were pronounced DOA.
Inquiries into the identity of the gunman, they say, revealed that he was Deryck Khanai, a businessman and a licensed firearm holder.
An eyewitness, who, along with several other civilians barred themselves in Da Silva’s Optical, which is obliquely opposite Khanai’s residence, when the shooting began, said that Khanai fired his first shot closer to 14:05 hrs.
She said that she initially heard a lone gunshot, which struck Khanai’s Lexus jeep which was parked underneath a red tent, damaging its mirror.
After this, the witness said, she saw Khanai running up Middle Street, towards the direction of East Street. He was reportedly shirtless, and was said to be wielding a “long rifle in his hand, and one (a pistol) tucked inside his pants waist at the back.”
While on the road, Khanai reportedly fired several other shots, which sent people who were in the surrounding environs scampering for cover. Around this time, another of the persons who was seeking refuge in Da Silva’s called the police who arrived about ten minutes after Khanai started his shooting spree, the eyewitness said.
She further shared that that “several youths …who had bags on their backs,” who turned out to be policemen, eventually converged on the building, taking up positions beside cars, and firing what appeared to be warning shots.” Shortly after this, a van load of officers clad in brown uniforms arrived and took up positions in the yards surrounding Khanai’s house, in which he insulated himself, as they attempted to encircle him.
The witness said that she saw when Constable Panlitz got shot. Stabroek News was told that “the dead one (Panlitz) came to the scene like the terminator and moved at the side of the man house like he’s immortal, and sadly, that was the end of him.”
After this more and more van loads of officers converged on the scene of the shoot-out until there were at least 70 police ranks – a combination of ordinary ranks, plain clothes officers, supervising officers, and ranks from the tactical services
unit – were at the scene.
This, the eyewitness said, is when the real exchange of gunfire began. The second policeman Forde is said to have died shortly after.
Stabroek News arrived on the scene of the shooting around 14:30 hrs just in time to witness an exchange of gunfire between Khanai and police. Ranks had just earlier made an attempt to breach the building but abandoned the bid after Khanai released a sudden barrage of gunfire in their direction. Several other such instances would occur before the shoot-out ended as Khanai’s tactics and that of the police clashed. Police ranks were seen positioning, and then re-positioning themselves several times during the shoot-out as they sought to find an angle to move in on Khanai.
Many of these ranks were not in possession of protective gear – helmets and bullet proof vests – and on numerous occasions ranks were seen sharing their protective vests, or trading their low powered weapons for higher power rifles.
Ranks nevertheless, took up positions on the steps, roofs, and yards of the surrounding buildings. A Chinese restaurant, which sits on the northern side of the East and Middle streets intersection, was used by the A Division Commander and other ranks as a temporary base of operations.
Meanwhile, hundreds of onlookers carelessly flocked the scene’s environs, even though police ranks told them that they were in a “live zone” and it was possible that they could be shot. Police ranks tried unsuccessfully to push them a safe distance from the scene, as they kept running beyond safe zones, and were even heard quarreling with police ranks for not allowing them to advance as they pleased.
Many of the onlookers were even seen climbing on vehicles and hiding behind cars, determined to get a glimpse of what was happening. Several others, residents in this case, were in their verandas, casually looking on as if they were watching a cricket match. It was only when shots rang out, after a few minutes of silence, they were seen ducking for cover.
Two employees of the nearby Balwant Singh Hospital, a pharmacist and an MRI technician were trapped in the building on the southern side of the intersection of East and Middle streets for some time after the shooting broke out, but were
eventually evacuated by ranks who broke a window to the east of the building so that they could safely climb through.
Khanai effectively transformed his Middle Street residence into an impenetrable fortress for more than two hours, and with the use of CCTV cameras and several weapons, he defended every port of entry – windows and doors – thwarting repeated attempts by police to enter the building.
A police release would later reveal that the man was in possession of a .32 pistol, a .22 pistol, and a shotgun.
The CCTV cameras allowed the man, who was in a central control room somewhere in the house, to monitor the movement of the officers who were outside orchestrating plans to penetrate his house. Each time the officers seemed to get close to breaching the man’s residence there were fresh, rapid bursts of gunfire, as he covered every angle of his home that the police tried to enter from.
“Every time they entered his yard his motion-sensor lights came on as he had cameras which were visibly placed at several points around the building,” the eyewitness said.
Although the cameras were prominently displayed around the house, the police apparently only realised that they were affording the man an advantage around an hour or so into the shootout. As such, they eventually sought to shoot and otherwise destroy the cameras, in an attempt to take away his advantage. One rank was even seen attempting to dislodge one of the cameras with a broom.
Attempts to flush the man out of the house or to incapacitate him to some extent saw ranks firing and pelting at least six tear-gas canisters at the building. Several canisters went into the building while at least two hit the building and ricocheted off.
But even the canisters which entered the house didn’t seem to have much of an effect on Khanai, said the eyewitness, who added that Khanai launched tear-gas canisters back at the ranks who took up positions at the front of the building.
It is unclear if the tear gas used by Khanai was his own, or if he picked up the ones used against him by the police, and lobbed them back.
His brother, Aubrey Khanai was seen lingering close to the scene, and when he was approached by Stabroek News he explained that he saw his brother earlier yesterday morning, and was unaware of what would have triggered his brother’s rampage. “I aint know what really trip he,” Aubrey exclaimed.
Like most persons who converged on the scene of the shooting yesterday, Aubrey said that he heard about what was happening from people on the street and decided to go and see what was happening.
He said that he was pretty sure that it was Khanai who was engaging the police by himself, and said that the only weapons he knew his brother to keep in the house was a shotgun and a pistol. He said that he had spoken to some police officers, while the shoot-out was going on, who told him that they were not sure which room of the house Khanai was shooting from.
But, at around 16:00, after an unusually long period of silence, it became apparent that Khanai was dead. Around this time police ranks had ceased their offensive tactics and were seen traversing the scene looking much more relaxed. They were no longer taking cover and pointing their rifles.
Instead, ranks tasked with crowd control moved to establish a barrier at the intersection of East and Middle streets in an effort to restrain brazen onlookers, who seemed determined to get closer to the scene. Before metal barriers were placed, officers were forced to hold stands and form a human barrier. Eventually however, the metal barriers were put in place. A metal barrier was also placed on East Street just in from of Da Silva’s Optical to prevent onlookers who were on that side of the street from getting closer to the scene.
Twenty minutes after the shooting ended, the body of Khanai, with a black bag covering his head, was brought out of the house and taken away.
About an hour and a half into the shoot-out, a GDF chopper was seen flying over the scene and its surroundings.
Since the police outnumbered Khanai, both in manpower and firepower, the sounds of their rifles dominated the exchanges. But, whenever Khanai returned fire, he did so rapidly, which brought cheers of approval from onlookers.
Also, at one point, when the police placed the body of one of the now dead ranks into the van and were about to take the body away, onlookers assumed that the dead body was Khanai’s, and in an effort to get a glimpse of the man, abandoned their cover and made a mad dash towards the vehicle. When police ranks shouted to them that Khanai was still alive and that their lives were in danger, they all scampered back to their initial positions.
A woman, who said that she was Khanai’s adopted daughter, said that the man had indicated to her on Monday night, and on several other occasions that he was scared for his life, and was suspicious that several of his relatives were trying to “do he something.”
The woman, who turned up at the scene after Khanai had died, told Stabroek News, that Khanai had been uneasy for some time.
The businessman was supposed to travel to Bartica yesterday where he is building a hotel but the woman said that the man’s problems caused him to drink to the point where he could no longer travel and therefore he canceled the trip. She said that someone had told her last night that someone had threatened his life, and that he was scared.
He also reportedly told his adopted daughter that some time ago a relative had pulled up in front of the house and stayed there for at least an hour. She said Khanai told her that he watched the car the relative was in all the while via his cameras, but that neither she, nor anyone else exited the car and that after about an hour the car drove off. She also shared that Khanai’s cameras mysteriously went bad sometime back, and that he had to call a technician to repair them.
He was also under the impression, his adopted daughter said, that someone had placed a camera in his house and was watching him. This led him to plug up several holes in the house where he believed cameras were planted. Khanai reportedly checked his entire bedroom for cameras, and even tore out the ceiling of a section of his house because he believed that cameras had been planted there. “He did keep saying that he had a feeling that somebody was watching he, he did even tear up he mattress to see if anything was inside it,” the woman explained.
She also said that she was especially disturbed when Khanai asked her on Saturday if she would like to be placed in his will. Khanai also reportedly checked his ceiling again on Saturday, looking for cameras.
Khanai’s adopted daughter said yesterday afternoon that she never knew her father to be such a violent man. However in 2010, Khanai was rushed to the hospital after he shot himself to his chin with a .357 revolver. At the time he was not yet a licensed firearm holder. It is unclear how he could have become a licensed firearm holder after such an incident. (Additional reporting by Pushpa Balgobin, Erica Williams, Jeanna Pearson and Zoisa Fraser)
Timeline for shooting
● Police say that they responded to the call about the shooting at 13:30 hrs
● An eyewitness however, says that she heard Khanai’s first shot closer to 14:05 hrs
● The first police responders are believed to have showed up by 14:15 hrs
● The first dead rank was taken to the GPHC at around 14:51 hrs
● Balwant Singh Hospital employees were evacuated from the building they were trapped in at around 15:01 hrs
● Police ranks resorted to the use of tear gas around 15:13hrs
● Police stopped using tear gas at around 15:25
● The police started to disable some of Khanai’s cameras around 15:30 hrs
● A GDF chopper flew over the scene for the first time around 15:38 hrs
● The second fatally injured officer was taken to the GPHC at around 15:48 hrs
● The bodies of two more persons were dragged from Khanai’s yard at around 16:13 hrs
● The last shot of the shoot-out was heard around 16:20
● Khanai’s body was taken away from the scene at approximately 16:59
