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A usually reliable source confided to this publication that the police were also informed that the persons behind the obviously illegal guns had vowed they were going to use the weapons against the lawmen if the lawmen were ever to attempt to stop and search them. And the source was convinced that those persons were not making idle threats.
The source also disclosed that since the police had received the tipoff, several ranks had refused to go on patrol, especially at night; and in one instance, a rank had refused to go on patrol with the firearm with which he was assigned, because it was not working properly. That rank had stated that he would go on patrol only if he was issued a workable firearm. That rank’s protestations had seen him being issued with a high-powered weapon, which he is now using to conduct his patrol duties.
This publication has also been told that the gunman who killed the cop last Saturday night, had brandished what looked like an Ak-47 rifle which had its butt sawn off, making it much lighter and easier to handle.
This publication has been unable to ascertain how many persons the police have questioned in regard to the execution of one of their colleagues and injury to two others, but was able to confirm that several persons had been questioned. Meanwhile, the vehicle which the unfortunate police patrol had been trailing at the time of the shooting has still not been located by the police.
As had obtained in the incident when Dameon Belgrave had been killed by a stray bullet fired from a police patrol which had been trailing a car through several city streets in 2012, the police ranks who, on Saturday night, had been trailing a suspicious car along a city street had breached the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of the Guyana Police Force after they had failed to send radio communication about their operations on that fatal night which saw a lawman being gunned down.
A senior police official told the Chronicle yesterday that ranks are bound by the SOPs of the GPS to communicate with their superiors and the GPS Control Room whenever they are on duty, especially when they decide to pursue suspects either on foot or by vehicle.
A very close associate of one of the surviving ranks of Saturday night’s unfortunate shooting has said that the cop has indicated to family members that, on the fateful night, “it all happened so fast”. The relative said that, based on what family members had been able to gather, the three policemen were not trailing the suspicious car for longer than two minutes. The ranks had observe that the car had a suspicious number plate, which had seemed tampered, and while the car was initially referred to as a white Toyota 212 vehicle, the car was in fact a Vios model. However, the surviving ranks have been unable to recall what where the numbers on the apparently fake number plate.
Meanwhile, relatives of at least one of the surviving policemen have expressed disgust, apart from fear for the cop’s life and that of their own, after the address of the young man had been published in one of the daily newspaper.
The Police Public Relations Officer has said he was unaware of this development, and has promised to check it out.
Last Tuesday night, the Guyana Police Service held a wake in the Brickdam Police Station compound in honour of the late Corporal Cleto, who operated out of that compound, being attached to the police ‘A’ Division, the headquarters of which is the Brickdam Police Station. Senior and junior officers of the GPS, who would have worked with the young man throughout his almost five years in the Guyana Police Service, attended that wake in substantial numbers.
