Smallie and accomplice shot dead in confrontation- police

Royden Williams

Royden Williams and his accomplice were fatally shot during a confrontation with members of the Joint Services at 33 Miles Bartica Potaro, Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum said this afternoon. 
He confirmed reports that circulated earlier in the day. 

Odel Roberts  has been identified as the accomplice. 

Smallie escaped on May 19 from the Mazaruni Prison, a maximum security facility, following an exchange of gunfire with prison officers.

 

He was listed as a death row prisoner and according to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), the convicted killer escaped with the aid of heavily armed accomplices in a speedboat at Mazaruni Prison just around 14:30 hours while he was being escorted back to his quarters following a visit.

At the time, the escort party was fired upon with AK-47 automatic rifles from the boat alongside the Mazaruni River during the transfer and it was then ‘Smallie’ escaped with the men.

 

The boat and its occupants proceeded upstream, past Itaballi landing, while prison guards with police in support followed in hot pursuit.

 

 

 

Back in 2022, ‘Smallie’ was sentenced to death for the 2008 murder of Guyana Defence Force (GDF) officer Ivor Williams.

 

 

 

Superintendent of the Mazaruni Prison, Alexander Hopkinson was among six persons who were charged on May 25 with conspiring to facilitate the escape of Smallie.

 

The others charged are Rajmohan Autor known as `Chico’, 48, a businessman of Parika Outfall; Frangeliz Jugandry Flores Perez, 28,  a Venezuelan of Alexander Street, Kitty; Omar Witherspoon, a prison officer of Stanleytown, New Amsterdam; Conroy Hosannah, a prison officer of Fort Ordnance Housing Scheme, East Canje; Oldfield Romulus, 50, a prison officer of Cumberland Village, East Canje.

They have all been remanded.