Crime Chief Leslie James yesterday said that the failure by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to make an effort to arrest Gregory Smith, the man fingered in the 1980 bomb blast death of Dr. Walter Rodney, was “not proper” in the face of evidence pointing to him possibly being the one to trigger the explosion.
James made the admission while he was being cross-examined by attorney Keith Scotland, who is representing the interest of Walter Rodney’s brother, Donald Rodney, at the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into Rodney’s death. Scotland’s cross-examination yesterday would see the walk-out of PNCR attorney Basil Williams, who accused the CoI of showing partiality in light of his line of questioning being disallowed.
Scotland quizzed James about the police’s response, based on experts’ opinions and a statement given to the police by Donald Rodney that Smith was the person who had approached his brother to build walkie-talkie devices, and was responsible for the fatal explosion.
Dr. Walter Rodney, co-leader of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), was killed in a car near John and Bent Streets on June 13, 1980, after an apparent decoy walkie-talkie given to him exploded. The inquiry was set up to probe his death.
Scotland questioned why Smith was not arrested after the police took a statement from Donald Rodney, a few days after Walter Rodney’s death. He stated that there is a remarkable difference between a walkie-talkie and an explosive device and under the National Security Miscellaneous Provision Act police were empowered to arrest Smith
