Fugitive held after poisoning water, trying to torch Onderneeming home

-was leader of gang

A man wanted by police on the Essequibo Coast was on Wednesday arrested after he attempted to torch the home of an Onderneeming Sandpit family.

The man, according to information reaching Stabroek News, was said to have been on the run for more than three years.

The arrest of the man came after he and an accomplice on  Wednesday morning reportedly put a poisonous substance into  two water tanks belonging to thirty-four-year old Daniel Stoll of Lot 570 Little Red Village, Onderneeming, Essequibo Coast.

Stoll who is self employed as a taxi driver is the sole breadwinner for his family of five.

Speaking with the media, Stoll related that the two men trespassed upon his property on Wednesday morning last, at around 4 and tainted two of his water tanks with Fastac poison and also set a gasoline trail from his car that was parked at his home to the public road and attempted to light the fire.

“Well I smell the gasoline and I jump out me sleep. So when I peep outside I see the man … with another man, and they the setting a gasoline trail from the car in me yard to the road. So I came out and try to cover the gasoline track with sand. Luckily the fire only burn across the road, it didn’t reach into the yard. When they see me, they pelt a wood at me”, he said.

Stoll said that he had no knowledge that his water was poisoned until his two children  ages six and eight became ill and were taken to the Suddie Public Hospital where they were examined and several tests were done which showed that the poison Fastac was in their systems.

Stoll said following the incident, he led the police straight to the fugitive’s hideout where he was apprehended. His mother was also said to have been taken into custody as well for harbouring a fugitive.

Stoll had made a report to the Suddie Police earlier that night about threats levelled against him by members of a gang headed by the fugitive, he does not have any knowledge as to what prompted the fugitive to poison his water.

“The night it start about 07:00pm, where I saw one of the gang member sitting in the road and blocked the car. I came out and ask him why he ain’t come off the road but he refuse to move, then three others came and they threaten to burn down my house. They said ‘you know how long I want brush you up, a gon chop you up. After the threats ‘they say you gon see what gon happen tonight.’ So I went to the police station and came back with the police and we circle but didn’t find anyone. So I leave it as dat and stayed home with my family and at 4 they try to set my place on fire”, Stoll stated.

Stoll commented that residents living in the area are scared to even venture out of their homes because of the gang which is in the habit if terrorising villagers.

“People are scared because these same people live in the village and are upholding these things. When these things  happen people just peeping, they scared to leave their homes. Yes they  have Community Police and Neighbourhood Police but we don’t have no confidence in the police because if you make a report somehow the gang is informed that the police coming.”

The gang led by the fugitive is said to be comprised of ten youths from the ages of fourteen to twenty-six.

This newspaper was told that even though the outlaw had been in hiding for some three years, he was already in the process of building his own home in the community.

The fugitive is expected today to answer to several charges at the Charity Magistrate’s Court.