Ex-soldier remains on run after escaping from Lusignan Prison

The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and Prison Service have intensified their hunt for John Lambert, who escaped from the Lusignan Prison, East Coast Demerara (ECD), in the wee hours of April 7.
The 24-year-old ex-soldier made his escape less than three days after being sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for narcotics possession.
Director of the Guyana Prison Service (GPS), Gladwyn Samuels told Guyana Times on Sunday that the ex-soldier is still at large but that the manhunt by law enforcement officials to recapture him continues.
“We are not giving up the search for him. As long as he is out there, we will keep looking, the manhunt is still on. It has not been called off,” he stated.
Meanwhile, law enforcement officials are asking that if anyone knows the whereabouts or has seen Lambert, to please make contact with the nearest police station or call 911.
Two Sundays ago, at about 03:39h, Lambert escaped from the penitentiary by scaling a fence on the south-eastern side of Holding Bay Three at that facility. Since then, the GPS has been collaborating with the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to recapture the prisoner.
Upon his escape, acting Director of the Prison, Kevin Pilgrim had stated that during Lambert’s escape, a rank at the Operational Post of the prison spotted the convict and verbally warned him to desist but eventually had to engage the young man in order to prevent him from getting away. However, the rank’s attempts proved futile.
“A rank would have engaged him and had to discharge several rounds in that direction which actually raised an initial alarm. There is police on standby right at Lusignan and you also have a Prison Task Force which complements that.
When they would have heard the gunshot, they would have obviously responded not knowing exactly what they were responding to, all but they knew was that it was an emergency,” he explained.
Guyana Times was further told that upon responding to the alarm that was raised, the teams automatically reverted to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for such cases.
“They managed to have picked up trails of the jersey, the general area that he was in but as you know, he is an ex-military person so he is more prone to have been tactical about his escape. It was not just wild and acted out of impulse, he would have been more precise based on what he is doing because that was exactly the case even for him escaping.
It was very precise, he just used his training for not a good purpose today, but he will still make some mistakes too because once you take good training and try to put it to bad use you will make some mistakes”, Pilgrim added.
According to the Prison’s records, Lambert was incarcerated on Friday, April 5, 2019, following his appearance at the Leonora Magistrate’s Court, West Coast Demerara (WCD), for the offence of trafficking in cannabis (1456 grams).
He was sentenced to pay a fine of $30,000 as well as serve four years’ imprisonment.