NEWS of the demise of a Norton Street, Lodge man during a run-in with the police following an armed robbery has come as quite a shock to not only his wife and immediate relatives, but his entire neighbourhood.The man, 36-year-old ex-cop Ryan Vaux, was reportedly shot and killed early yesterday morning at Plaisance, East Coast Demerara.

Neighbours have said the Vaux they had known was a quiet man who had never had a problem with the law, as far as they knew. He would usually go about his business, and when he was done for the day, would park his car outside his house.

And though the car was not there yesterday morning, they were not alarmed, until they received word that he had been killed.

One neighbour observed, “Imagine dis boy lived here and he look so easy fuh got gun and suh. He didn’t look so to me, so it is shocking to hear what happened.”

His wife, Sonia, learnt of his passing while at work. A visit to the house the couple shared with their seven-year-old daughter yesterday morning found Mrs Vaux inconsolable and unable to speak to the media.

A police press statement said that at about 01:10hrs on Monday, ranks of a mobile patrol travelling along Broad Street, Montrose, ECD saw a man running behind motor vehicle PSS 6835 and shouting that he had been robbed of a sum of money by persons in the vehicle.

The police subsequently intercepted the vehicle and found just the driver, who happened to be Vaux, and another man in it.
A search of both Vaux and the other occupant of the vehicle unearthed $21,000 in cash on the latter’s person.

This resulted in that man and the robbery victim — Deryck Persaud, 46, of Cummings Lodge, ECD — being placed in the police vehicle and Vaux being asked to accompany the police in his car to the Sparendaam Police Station.

On the way to the station, Persaud revealed that both men had robbed him, and that they had a handgun and a knife.

According to the police, as ranks approached Vaux on arrival outside the Sparendaam Station, he whipped out a firearm and drove off. At this point Vaux was shot, the police said, the lone round hitting him somewhere in his body. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the GPHC.

He was able to get as far as Vryheid’s Lust Access Road, about half a mile from Sparendaam, before he crashed his vehicle.
A search of the vehicle, the police say, unearthed a pellet handgun. The other suspect is in police custody, assisting with their investigations.
(Michel Outridge)