A labourer who says he witnessed the Georgetown seawall shooting in which three men were killed by the police in a sting operation two weeks ago , has made explosive claims that the men were executed by the lawmen.

The man , in a written statement , noted that he was working on a  roof at the Guyana Softball Association ground on March 15 , the day of the incident when he witnessed the ordeal.

On that day , 46-year-old Dextroy Cordis called “Dutty” of Grove, East Bank Demerara; Kwame Assanah of Buxton, East Coast Demerara; and 57-year-old Errol Adams also known as “Dynamite” of Buxton, ECD died after they were shot dead by the police. The police said in a statement that the men had trailed a customer from a commercial bank.

Flanked by Attorney-at-law Nigel Hughes at the lawyer’s offices in the city, the eyewitness claims that he along with two workers were working on a roof at the softball ground just before midday on the day of the incident when , “I heard banging coming from the seawall.”

He said that when he looked up he saw the police had blocked -off the road at the top of Camp Street. He said he heard shots fired and saw two cars moving along the seawall road; a black car in front followed by a silver car.

He said when the black car stopped, someone emerged from the driver side and someone also came out of the car behind. He said the person from the silver car started to beat the other individual who was by this time lying on the ground.

The eyewitness noted that some 20 minutes after the beating , he heard rapid gun fire and at the time, “there was one person standing over the same person who was lying on the ground.”

He said 10 to 15 minutes later,policemen from Camp Street started to run up the road ; a photographer was in their company. The eyewitness said the lawmen went to the scene and soon after an ambulance arrived.

The eyewitness was expected to lodge the statement with the police on Monday afternoon.

Police stated on the say of the incident that the three men were reportedly seen following a customer who had exited Scotia Bank and had driven off in a motorcar.
According to the police, the customer upon arrived at the Kingston Seawall, parked his motorcar, and it was then that he was pounced upon by the suspects.

“…the two suspicious looking characters in the motorcar drove up to the customer’s vehicle and exited, one brandishing a small arm at the customer,” the police stated, while adding that the police anti-crime patrol, which by then was in close proximity, called out to the suspected bandits, but instead of listening to the police, the one armed with a gun discharged several rounds, and the police returned fire.

According to the police, seconds after the initial exchange of gunfire which led to the killing of Assanah and Cordis , two males were seen on a CG motorcycle in close proximity of the motorcar of the now dead suspects.
One of the two persons on the motorcycle reportedly shot at the police several times who again returned fire which resulted in another person , Adams, being shot dead.

Assanah’s wife Claire vehemently denied that her husband had any previous criminal history.She said that the Toyota motorcar , PTT 9034 which he was using is registered in both their names, and that her husband would work taxi from time to time.

She believes that this may have led to his demise, as she and relatives believe that the man may have inadvertently been at the wrong place when the shooting occurred.

Acting Commissioner of Police David Ramnarine later stated that the police ranks were justified in killing the three men , insisting that , “You’re dammed if you do, and dammed if you don’t.”