THE Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has advised that an inquest be held into the fatal shooting of former cop, Ryan Vaux, of Lot 80 Norton Street, Wortmanville, which occurred at Sparendaam Public Road, East Coast Demerara on May, 9, 2016.

The police in a statement Tuesday noted that this was as a result of an investigation conducted by the Office of Professional Responsibility. Vaux, called “Gaza”, 36, a former member of the Tactical Services Unit of the Guyana Police Force, was shot while driving away from armed police ranks outside the Sparendaam Police Station.

The former cop turned taxi driver was shot dead by the police, after he allegedly pointed a gun at ranks and tried to escape after he was arrested for an alleged robbery committed on a Cummings Lodge resident the same day he was killed.

He collapsed from the gunshot wound and crashed his Toyota Spacio into a trench about 800 metres east of the police station. The police had stated that on the day in question, ranks of a mobile police patrol along Broad Street, Montrose, East Coast Demerara, saw a man running behind a motor vehicle bearing registration PSS 6835 and shouting that he had been robbed of a sum of money by persons in the vehicle.

The police said that the ranks subsequently intercepted the motor vehicle with the driver and another man inside. In the passenger’s possession was $21,000.

According to the police, the passenger along with the robbery victim who was identified as Deryck Persaud, 46, of Cummings Lodge, was placed into the police vehicle, while a police rank entered Vaux’s vehicle and they were taken to the Sparendaam Police Station.

There Deryck Persaud informed the police that he had been robbed by the two men who were armed with a handgun and a knife.
He told the police that he was walking along the road when the car pulled up alongside him and the passenger got out and confronted him with a “Rambo” knife.

Persaud said that the man demanded his money and he initially resisted. He claimed that the driver of the car who apparently got angry by his reluctance to hand over his money, got out and pointed a gun at him, forcing him to hand over $25,000.

Persaud said that shortly after, he saw a police mobile patrol and he informed the ranks that he was just robbed by two men in the car that was speeding away in front of him. The police gave chase and caught up with the vehicle and took the men to the station.

Reports further disclosed that at the station, the police decided to carry out a search of the car that was parked on the roadway. Two armed ranks stood guard, while a detective effected the search in Vaux’s presence.

The police said that as this was being done, Vaux suddenly bent down into the driver’s side of the car and pulled out a gun, which he pointed at one of the armed ranks. The police subsequently ordered him to drop the weapon but he refused and drove away instead.

The ranks then discharged rounds from their rifles at Vaux, but he managed to drive out of their sight. The police later drove in the direction in which Vaux had driven and found the car in the trench that separates Vryheid’s Lust and Better Hope. It turned out that the weapon Vaux had brandished was a pellet handgun. It was found in the crashed car.