–calling for ‘thorough’ probe, say known hitman could help bring ‘perps’ to justice

IT has been 17 long years since former Deputy Head of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), Senior Superintendent Vibert Inniss was gunned down, execution style, in Buxton on the East Coast of Demerara.

His murder, like hundreds of others that occurred during the crime wave, remains unsolved, but his family is hoping that justice will one day be served.
Inniss’ family is calling on the David Granger Administration to order a thorough investigation into his death, noting that self-confessed former ‘Death Squad’ member, Sean Hinds could lead investigators to the killers.

Inniss was killed on the morning of Saturday, August 24, 2002, shortly before 06:00hrs. At the time, he was in the company of a woman, and proceeding along the Buxton Public Road in his motorcar, PHH 6436, when he stopped in the vicinity of Company Road to purchase a newspaper from a vendor. It was while he was waiting in the parked vehicle that a man emerged from a white motorcar and opened fire on him.

When the Guyana Chronicle initially reported on the incident, it was apparent that there was more than one gunman, as the first shots were fired from the right side of Inniss’ car, hitting him in the head, face, shoulders, and other parts of the body.
And though badly wounded, and slumped in the seat of his car, the gunmen did not cease firing. Eyewitnesses told this newspaper that the assailants fired on both sides of the car, discharging three rounds from the front, which penetrated the windscreen, inflicting deadly wounds on Inniss. When done, the men reportedly got back into their car and escaped.
The woman, who had gone to buy the newspaper, is said to have sustained three gunshot wounds, but fled the scene when the dust settled.

DRUG LINK
Inniss’ death was linked to a major drug probe he was spearheading at the time. In May 2002, he had uncovered 1,871kg (the equivalent of 4,116 pounds) of compressed cannabis sativa (marijuana), which had a street value of more than $60M. The marijuana was found in a false wall in a container that had arrived at the John Fernandes Wharf from Jamaica. Inniss was killed at a time when he and his team were making a breakthrough in the investigation.

On Sunday, one day after his death anniversary, Inniss’ sister, Glenis Semple broke down as she cried for justice, saying that only then ill she get closure. “I want a thorough investigation to be launched into the murder of my brother. The (then) Minister of Home Affairs, he dead and gone, but I need closure. No one ever called; no one ever said anything. And I know that the PPP was in a lot of crime,” Semple told the Guyana Chronicle during an interview at her brother’s Melanie Damishana home, some 11½ miles from Georgetown on the upper East Coast Demerara, and close to two miles from where he was killed.

LOVED HIS JOB
Reflecting on his life, Semple, who lives overseas, said her brother was the head of the family; that he was loved and respected by many, and had a deep love and appreciation for his profession. Inniss had worked in the Guyana Police Force, but was transferred to CANU from its inception in 1995. By virtue of his creditable performance, he rose to the rank of Acting Head of the Unit in the absence of the then CANU Chief, Freddie Truman.

Semple said before her brother was gunned down, he had a sneaky suspicion that the drugs found in the container either belonged, or were linked, to then Minister of Home Affairs, Ronald Gajraj. And as his investigation advanced, she said, a senior People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government official offered him a huge sum of money to halt the investigation, but he declined and continued to pursue the matter.

“He didn’t talk about this work a lot,” Semple recalled, “but he called me and said the government might have been involved in this last container they found with drugs at John Fernandes Wharf, and that an offer was made to him but he declined.” She had already migrated to the U.S. at the time, she said, adding that it would appear that he’d somehow known he didn’t have long to live, but being the fearless person he was, the Senior Superintendent pledged to continue his work regardless. “A couple of days before (he died),” she recalled, “he told me he noticed unmarked cars in the street, but he said, ‘I will do my job. If they get me; they get me, but I am going to do my job the right way.’”

THE DREADED NEWS
It was not long after, she said, that she got the dreaded news that her older brother was gunned down in Buxton. He had just returned to the country from the U.S. approximately four days prior.

“I was going to Atlantic City,” she said, “when the phone rang and my daughter said, ‘Mommy, Mommy, they just shot Uncle Collin.’” She recalled that her brother had planned to celebrate his nephew’s birthday that day.
Inniss’ close friend with whom he’d worked told the Guyana Chronicle that after learning of the murder, he rushed to the scene.

“I arrived there before police from Vigilance got there. I reached into the car, took out the radio set, and called in to the office and inform them that Mr. Inniss had been shot,” he recounted, while requesting anonymity.
The man, who was also working with CANU at the time, said he anxiously awaited the police’s arrival, in the hope that the murder would have been solved in no time, but the opposite occurred.

‘STAND DOWN!’
He told this newspaper that Inniss’ colleagues at CANU had pledged to bring the perpetrators to justice, but they were subsequently instructed by the then Home Affairs Minister to ‘stand down’. Investigators were also reportedly instructed not to interview the woman who’d been with Inniss at the time of the shooting, and had narrowly missed being executed herself.

The man said Inniss confided in him. “He even told me that ‘so-and-so’ (name given) was paid to kill him,” the former CANU man said, “but ‘so-and-so’ told him he would never do something to a man who is clean.”

According to him, it could not have been ‘So-and-So’ who did the job, but that he may very well be able to name the killers and the intellectual authors of the murder.
“For me, a lot of crime during that period, just as ‘So-and-So’ is saying, it could only be solve if an international body come and do ballistic tests on weapons of the Security Forces, and then they would realise that persons under Gajraj watch were used to commit crimes against the State and against citizens,” the informant said.

‘SO-AND-SO KNOW’

In advocating for an investigation to be launched into her brother’s murder, Semple opined that Hinds should be taken into custody to assist with the investigation. “So-and-So’ know who killed my brother; Gajraj knew who killed my brother, and Jagdeo knows who killed my brother, and I want justice,” the grieving woman said.
Semple is also calling for convicted drug kingpin Roger Khan, to be arrested and charged for the crimes he committed upon his arrival in Guyana. It is believed that the drugs found in the container were also linked to Khan, a self-confessed criminal who was facilitated by the government of the day.

In Inniss’s memory, his overseas-based relatives, along with those still living here, would distribute school supplies, including backpacks, to the children of Calcutta in Mahaicony, his birthplace, and other neighboring villages, and this year was no exception. “Every year, he use to travel to the U.S and bring back toys for the children of the village, and so we continue that tradition in his memory,” Semple explained.
This year, his family donated school supplies to over 1000 children, and has pledged to upkeep the tradition, although the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) has proven to be a humbug. “We had to pay US$800 to clear these items, although we explained to them the items would have been distributed the very next day to poor children,” one relative said, adding: “But next year, we will get our paper work intact to show that is for a charitable cause, and we will continue to host these school drives in his honour.”