A 51-year old man was shot and killed on Thursday afternoon following a shootout with police during a drug operation at an Ogle, East Coast Demerara hotel.Dead is Nigel Joseph of South Ruimveldt. The man was shot after he and three other drug transaction suspects were confronted by police at the Alpha Hotel on the Ogle Public Road, East Coast Demerara. A quantity of cocaine and a firearm were recovered from the scene.
According to reports, the men booked a room at the hotel on Monday afternoon. They drew the suspicion of persons in the area and acting on a tip-off, the police descended on the scene and cordoned off the hotel’s compound. Sometime after 4:30 pm, the men engaged the police and gunfire shattered the peace of the usually quiet community.
Joseph was shot after escaping from the scene while engaging the lawmen.
Residents of First Street , Ogle Airport Road told this newspaper that they heard several gunshots at the hotel’s parking lot. They said several police vehicles rushed through the street as the lawmen cordoned off the back and front entrances of the hotel. Persons at the hotel were tightlipped about the incident.
However, a resident in the area told this newspaper that he was sitting outside his home when he saw a man running along First Street towards the Airport Road. He said the man was carrying a gun at the time and with the police in hot pursuit, the man ran into an empty lot across the Airport Road. He said there was another volley of gunshots and later the police carried the man away from the scene. The other suspects were arrested at the hotel.
At the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, persons reported that a police vehicle transported the injured gunman to the institution shortly after 5pm. The man appeared lifeless, they noted.
This is not the first time that persons have undertaken drug-related transactions at the hotel in question.
In November last year , 35-year-old Dwayne Adams of Middle Street, Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara and 44-year-old Hubert Smith of Lot 3464 North Ruimveldt, appeared before Magistrate Judy Latchman on a charge of trafficking cocaine several days earlier. The drug was in pellet form and the men were preparing to ingest the illicit substance.
According to a report, ranks acting on a tip-off swooped down on the hotel and arrested the two suspected drug mules as they were preparing to board a flight to New York.