BANDIT SHOT DEAD
- said to be a member of a two-man gang suspected of terrorising East Coast Demerara villages
By Delana Isles
ONE of the two bandits who have been terrorising residents of a number of East Coast Demerara villages was yesterday morning gunned down in an exchange of fire with police.

Twenty-four-year-old Courtney James, for whom the police had issued a wanted bulletin last month, and who was wanted in connection with a series of armed robberies and rapes in a number of East Coast Villages, as well as last month’s attack on Magistrate Nigel Hawke and his wife Donnelle, was shot and killed early yesterday morning.

TSS-Gangsta  Bandit-Aubrey

Reports reaching this newspaper say that the man was spotted jumping over the fence of a yard on Mandela Avenue, Alexander Village, Greater Georgetown, by police on a mobile patrol.

The fugitive was challenged by police, but opened fire at them.

James was shot in the exchange of gunfire that ensued and was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital.

Reports said a .32 revolver with live rounds and two spent shells were recovered at the scene.

James is alleged to have perpetrated a series of rapes and robberies on the East Coast Demerara between November 26 and May 14 last.

Speaking to this newspaper yesterday, Senior Superintendent Louis Crawford, performing the duties of Crime Chief in the absence of Assistant Commissioner of Police Seelall Persaud, said that with the killing of James, it is expected that the spate of robberies on the East Coast villages will decrease, as James, along with his accomplice, was the prime suspect in these criminal acts.

Crawford stated that the police will continue to hunt the other man and will not let up until he is captured, although his identity is not yet known.

Earlier this month, following a call by the Guyana Police Force for James to give himself up, ‘C’ Division (East Coast Demerara) Commander Balram Persaud had also called on residents of the lower ECD villages to assist police in capturing the criminal and his accomplice who had been stalking several areas.

The Commander had appealed to the public for help in capturing James, though the Force had set up a special unit consisting of ranks from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to capture the AK-47 bandit and his accomplice.

Persaud had appealed that public knowledge of the whereabouts of the bandits needed to be provided to the police.

The Commander had also lamented the rising incidents of robbery attacks the duo was perpetuating with relative ease in several villages, as well as the brutality the men meted out to their victims.

Some of the villages targeted were Non Pariel, Enterprise, and Enterprise Gardens.

Residents in some of these areas had previously expressed their fear of the AK-47 bandit and his accomplice to the Guyana Chronicle.

Knowing of the two criminals’ propensity for raping their female victims, parents in a number of these villages had prevented their daughters from traversing the roads after dark, fearful that they would be sexually molested. Other residents had said that they try to get home early in the evenings.

Among those attacked by the criminals was a young woman who was robbed by the AK-47 bandit, who was alone on this occasion; and mere days following that incident the duo went on a rampage at about 22:15h at Ghandi Street, Enterprise, robbing six men of cell phones, motorcycle keys, two bicycles, cash and jewellery.

The two men are also suspected of committing numerous other crimes, including an attack on a security guard, who, while on his way to work, was beaten severely with the butt of an AK-47 when he told the men that he had only $40.

Magistrate Hawke and his lawyer wife, both of Section ‘B’ Non Pariel, are suspected to have been attacked by James last April 20.

Speaking to the Guyana Chronicle shortly after the incident, Hawke had stated that he and his wife were in the upper flat of their home when, about 12:30h, he went to the washroom and minutes after saw his frightened wife escorted by a masked man with an AK-47 assault rifle.

Recounting the harrowing experience, which lasted about 45 minutes, the Magistrate said that he was made to lie face down on the floor of the washroom, tied up, and a sheet was placed over his face, before the gunman demanded that they hand over all their valuables, including his wedding band.

The gunman also tied up Mrs. Hawke in a bedroom, but after the man escaped she managed to free herself and her husband.

The thief escaped with a laptop computer, wrist watches, cellular phones, cash, jewels and a digital camera.

Hawke, who sits in the Georgetown and Providence Courts, has been provided with security at his home since the incident.

Last Friday midday, police on the East Coast of Demerara, during a raid on a house in Haslington, East Coast Demerara, recovered an AK-47 rifle with eight matching rounds and a .32 Taurus revolver.

Seized also were a cellular phone, five watches, a pair of cycling gloves and three bicycles that are suspected to have been stolen.

The cell phone, cycling gloves and one of the bicycles have been identified as being the property of the victims of an armed robbery at Enmore North last Thursday.

One man had been arrested at that location.
Further investigations led to police converging on a house at Beterverwagting, another East Coast Demerara village, where a lap top computer was recovered.

This was later identified as the property of Magistrate Hawke, stolen during the attack at his house.
A man and a woman were arrested at the time.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009