–accomplice on the run
MELROY Solomon, also known as ‘Souse Mouth’, 27, of Agricola, East Bank Demerara, was on Thursday shot and killed by the police in Mahaicony.
The incident occurred during a shootout with a party of policemen on two occasions as he and an accomplice tried to escape after robbing a taxi driver and hijacking his vehicle.
Reports are that around 11:30hrs on Thursday, Solomon and another man went to Vick’s Taxi Service at Foulis, East Coast Demerara, where they accosted 19-year-old taxi driver, Chetran Sitaldin and relieved him of his personal belongings and the Toyota 212 motorcar he was driving with registration plate PMM 9044.
Sources say that the police, after receiving word of the robbery, immediately set up several roadblocks along the way, having learnt that the bandits were headed in an easterly direction in the stolen vehicle.
And as the bandits approached the roadblock at New Road, Mahaicony, they tried to ram an unmarked police vehicle from behind and opened fire on the ranks inside it.
They somehow managed to escape unscathed, with the police in hot pursuit, and turned into a community street leading to a backdam.
They, however, encountered a section of road they could not go beyond, and ditching the vehicle, the men fled on foot.
Word is that while fleeing, the suspects came upon a young farmer tending his cattle, and pointing their gun at him, ordered that he take them deeper into the backdam to a location that would allow them to exit the area safely.
The young farmer reportedly did as told, and when the suspects were satisfied they had put some distance between themselves and the police, they joined a vehicle and under the guise of regular passengers, attempted to exit the area.
But unknowing to them, the police were still hot on their trail and had already set up a roadblock in the area.
With nowhere to run now, seeing that they were in unfamiliar territory, the bandits decided to brazen it out when the police stopped the vehicle, and the one with the gun opened fire on the police who returned fire, killing him in the process. The other bandit managed to escape.
The police are said to be conducting an intense search of the area to locate the other bandit.
Commander Calvin Brutus, who spoke with the Guyana Chronicle at the Mahaicony Police Station, indicated that the dead bandit is a known character, and was in the past charged for similar offences, which matters are still engaging the attention of the courts.
The police also managed to recover one firearm and a number of spent shells.
