–Warden recounts how wanted felon, Uree Varswyck almost killed him

A MEMBER of the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) attached to the Task Force Department of the Camp Street Prison said he played dead after he was shot, because he knew he would have been killed during the fiery jail unrest, which almost flattened the entire buildings on Sunday.

The injured prison rank, Jason Maltay, who is a patient at the Georgetown Hospital, told the Guyana Chronicle on Monday that he was on duty on Sunday in the Task Force Department’s squad room when he heard the hazard whistle.

The 20-year-old, who is nursing a gunshot wound to the leg, said the minute he heard the whistle, he knew that something was amiss, as it meant that an officer was in trouble.

Maltay said that he and four other ranks, on realising that the prisoners housed in the Condemned Division had already broken out, tried to secure the Woods Building, which housed condemned prisoners, but were prevented from doing so by the very people they were trying to save.

The Canje, East Bank Berbice resident said that it was at that point that he and his four colleagues realised that they and their puny batons were no match against the prisoners, who were armed to the teeth with some very wicked-looking improvised weapons.

In their attempt to retreat, Maltay said, they found themselves cornered by a gate in the Chief of Prisons’ office, on the other side of which were prisoners brandishing improvised weapons and saying that if they only dare try to open the gate, they’d be sorry.

But open the gate he and his four colleagues did eventually, and ran into the Chief’s office, where they again found themselves cornered.

Seeing a chance to escape the armed mob outside the Chief’s office, Maltay said he ran upstairs, jumped through a window, and made his getaway across the roof which took him to the prison’s front gate.

PLAY DEAD
He related that it was while he was attempting to access the armoury that he came face-to-face with Uree Varswyck, called Malcolm Gordon, the ex-policeman who is on remand for murder.

And without hesitating, Varswyck fired two shots at him from a handgun.

Maltay said, “I plunged to the ground, but a bullet caught me in the foot and I stayed down.
“I played dead, and he probably thought I was and walked away. I believe if I did not play dead, he would have killed me on Sunday.”

He said he saw when Chief Prisoner Officer Hubert Trim was attacked, but he couldn’t help him as he was trying to save his own neck.

Maltay said that on Sunday, all staff who were required to work showed up for duty as per normal, little knowing what was about to take place.

The rank stated that he had no time to retrieve any of his personal belongings on Sunday, as he was too busy trying to contain the prisoners and helping his colleagues.

As such, he lost his cell-phone, his motorcycle keys, license, identification and bank cards among other things in the fire that day.

Meanwhile, Chief Prison Officer Hubert Trim, both of whose legs were broken in the melee, is listed as critical in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the GPHC, nursing multiple chop and stab wounds.

When the Guyana Chronicle went to see him on Monday, only two relatives at a time were allowed to visit him.

BADLY BEATEN
According to his wife, Carlotta, her husband is not doing too well, as he was not only badly beaten, but also chopped to his head and hands, and stabbed in the chest.

She related that she and her husband have four children, aged 16, 14, nine and eight, and have been married for 10 years, but lived together for nine years before they tied the knot.

She noted that he has been in the employ of the GPS for the past 21 years, and was promoted to Chief Prison Officer just last year.

Mrs. Trim, who lives in New Amsterdam, Berbice, told the Guyana Chronicle that she last saw her husband on July 1, when he went home to visit, but they would often talk on the phone, as he’s since his promotion been posted to Georgetown.

She stated that she became aware of the fire at the Georgetown Prison via Facebook and the newsflash on television, and began making enquiries.

Between tears, Mrs. Trim, a postal worker, said on Monday that she’d had to take some time off from her job so she could visit her husband, and was hoping that the doctors would tell her how he was doing.

She added that no one from the GPS has reached out to her as yet. According to ‘A’ Division Commander, Marlon Chapman, the injured prison officers are Hubert Trim; Simeon Sandy, who has injuries about the body but was treated and discharged; Peter Gonsalves, who received chop wounds and is still hospitalised; Jason Maltay, who was shot in the right leg and is still in hospital; Earl Bathness, who was shot to the left shoulder and was treated and discharged.

Chapman reported that prison officer Odinga Wickham was shot multiple times about the body and succumbed at the GPHC. The injured prisoners have been identified as Keron Cummings, who is nursing a gunshot wound and remains hospitalised, and Marcus Anthony, called “Wild Buck”, who was shot in the left foot and is also hospitalised.