2 prison escapees, close acquaintance killed in shootout with Police

– close acquaintance identified as Better Hope woman

The Guyana Police Force (GPF) has confirmed that the two men who were killed on Monday evening during a shootout with Police at Better Hope backlands, East Coast Demerara (ECD), are two of the Mazaruni Prison escapees. The operation has also left a close acquaintance of one of the men dead.

Dead: Imran Ramsawack (left) and Ryan Jones

The two dead prisoners are 25-year-old Imran Ramsaywack of Adelphi Village, East Canje, and 22-year-old Ryan Jones of Timehri, East Bank Demerara (EBD), while the close acquaintance was identified as 49-year-old Savita Rajkumar, called “Debbie” of Better Hope South Squatting Dam, ECD. Ramsaywack was on death row while Jones was convicted for manslaughter.
Police reportedly received information that the Mazaruni Prison escapees were hiding out at a location in the Better Hope South backlands. As such, a team was deployed to the area where they observed an abandoned field in a bushy and swamped area.
Further, the ranks noticed three wooden shacks, with two partly under construction. The rank reportedly checked the first shack but no one was seen. However, as they were approaching the second, they overheard talking in the third.
Upon hearing this, the advance team alerted the others. The Police stated that soon after, a male emerged from the shack and discharged a round at the Police and ran into the nearby bushes.
In retaliation, the Police returned fire. As they got close to the shack, they observed two men and a woman lying on the floor with gunshot injuries. They were reportedly motionless. The area was reportedly combed in search of the fourth person but there were no signs of him. Police also confirmed that a sawn-off double-barrel shotgun was found at the scene.
As such, the two males were immediately identified as Ramsaywack and Jones. At that time, the female was unidentified. The bodies were taken to Lyken’s Funeral Home.
Meanwhile, the Police on Tuesday noted that at about 10:00h, a 26-year-old housewife of Friendship Squatting Area, EBD, turned up at the Sparendaam Police Station and claimed that she received information that her mother was involved in the shooting incident at Better Hope on Monday evening.
She was immediately taken to Lyken’s Funeral Home where she positively identified the woman’s body as that of her mother. Based on a source, the now dead woman would take food and clothing for the men who had been hiding in the area since one week after they escaped from prison.
In fact, it is suspected that after Jones’ father would have assisted them with a change of clothes and other items to keep them afloat, they would have contacted Rajkumar.
It was reported that 60-year-old Ralph Jones, the father of prison escapee Ryan Jones of Fourth Avenue, Bartica, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), was charged for harbouring the four convicts.
The man had admitted that after escaping from the Mazaruni Prison, his son contacted him by telephone and informed him of his actions.
He told detectives that the following day, all four of the escapees showed up at his house, where he provided them with a change of clothing and collected the clothes that they were wearing and dumped them in an alleyway aback his house.
Police later found a white salt bag that contained several items suspected to be belongings of the escapees. These include clothing, footwear, deodorant, toques, pillow, and pillowcases, along with a bottle of Red Star rub, a toothbrush, and a food bowl.
With the deaths of Ramsaywack and Jones, 44-year-old Kenrick Lyte, whose last known address was Grant Good Intent, Lower Pomeroon River, and 22-year-old Samuel Gouveia of Goedverwagting, ECD, are still at large.