Cop held with illegal gun after being accused of threats

A Police Corporal attached to the Tactical Services Unit (TSU) of the Guyana Police Force is now under close arrest after he was reportedly found with an illegal firearm.

Sources told Stabroek News that the discovery was made after a report was made to a police station by another man who claimed that the officer threatened him with the gun.

From that point, the police accompanied the man, who identified the Police Corporal as the individual who threatened him. A search was carried out on the rank and it uncovered a 9 mm pistol and a quantity of ammunition.

The officer denied the allegation, explaining that the man pointed the gun at him and he took it away.

Investigations are said to be ongoing as the officer remains under close arrest.

Another police rank, Constable Tito Benons, was allegedly found last Saturday with an unlicensed pistol and 15 rounds and was charged and remanded to prison on Thursday.

Benons was charged with having in his possession a Smith and Wesson 9mm pistol and 15 rounds of matching ammunition.

Benons, who is attached to the Anti-Crime Unit in Berbice and has been a member of the Guyana Police Force for the past four years, pleaded not guilty to the charges and his lawyer told a court that the rank had found the weapon and was taking it to a police station when he was intercepted.

Police had earlier said that the weapon and ammunition were discovered by ranks of a police traffic patrol on March 26, at Norton Street and Louisa Row, Georgetown, after the defendant, who was among four other men on three CG motorbikes, was stopped and searched.