Diligent work by ranks of the Guyana Police Force in D Division (West Bank Demerara-East Bank Essequibo) resulted in one of six prisoners, wanted for escaping from the Camp Street Penitentiary on Sunday during the disastrous fire, being recaptured in Canal Number One Polder, West Bank Demerara.
The abandoned shack the escaped prisoner was hiding in at Canal Number One
After receiving information, Police in the Division swooped down on an abandoned shack in Canal Number One late Friday evening and arrested 27-year-old Desmond James.
The gold miner was charged in 2014 for allegedly killing Glendon Cox on September 1, 2014, at Four Miles Arakaka Backdam, North West District (NWD), and was on remand.
Divisional Commander, Leslie James, disclosed that at about 22:50h on Friday, the ranks went to an Access Dam in Canal Number One, where the suspect was found hiding out.
At the time of his recapture, the escapee was found in possession of a knife and a few pieces of clothing. He told investigators that he was heading to Essequibo. From reports received, the man had a haircut with the intention of disguising himself.
The 24-year-old murder accused of Hotoquai Creek, NWD, was among six inmates of the Georgetown Prison who escaped on Sunday and for whom wanted bulletins were issued.
Authorities had stated that James was believed to be moving with the alleged mastermind of the fire, Mark Royden Durant, called “Royden Williams” and “Smallie”; ex-cop Uree Varswyck; and Stafrei Hopkinson Alexander somewhere along the East Coast Demerara backlands.
Durant is currently on death row for both the Lusignan and Bartica massacres, while Varswyck was fingered in the robbery/murder at Sterling Products Limited. The other escapee was also imprisoned for murder.
Meanwhile, the Police were able to recapture three other prisoners who had escaped on Sunday evening while being transported from the Camp Street jail following the fire that razed the facility.
Remanded murder accused Shawn Collins, 20, of Lot 6 Ketley and Drydales Streets, Georgetown, was rearrested in the wee hours of Monday on Hadfield Street. The other two escapees – Mohamed Pokhan, 40, of Chateau Margot, East Coast Demerara, and Anthony Marcus – walked into the Georgetown Public Hospital compound on Monday both in a drunken stupor with gunshot injuries. They were treated and released back into the custody of Prison authorities.
Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud recently told media operatives that the prisoners were able to elude officers on the ground during their escape since focus was on the perimeter fencing of the Camp Street jail where inmates were escaping.
He added that the officers at the front gate were overpowered and five men came out of that gate. They then headed down Camp Street and hijacked a car in which four of them escaped, while the fifth went back into the prison.
During last Sunday’s jailbreak and fire, which flattened the Camp Street facility, several prison officers were attacked and injured by inmates. One officer, 33-year-old Odinga Wickham, succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds while undergoing surgery.
