Gold camp attack – Venezuelan welder remanded for murder of Warapoka man

A 31-year-old Venezuelan national has been remanded to prison after being charged with the murder of a man whose body was discovered in the Iwokrama Protected Area earlier this year. Jose Armando Alsena Coll, a welder of Sheriff Street, Georgetown, appeared before Senior Magistrate Clive Nurse at the Mahdia Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday via Zoom, where the indictable charge of murder was read to him. The charge alleges that Coll murdered Rodwell La Cruz, known as “Kabaloo,” a 30-year-old resident of Warapoka Village in the North West District, Region One (Barima-Waini). According to police, the offence occurred on March 10 at about 10:00hrs at a camp in the Iwokrama Protected Area along the Siparuni River in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni). Coll was arrested on May 28.

Bail was refused, and he was remanded to prison. The matter was adjourned to June 26. In March, Police had said that they were investing La Cruz’s death and injuries to a 36-year-old man of Blygezight, East Coast Demerara (ECD) and Fair View Village, North Rupununi and a 25-year-old miner of Paramakatoi Village, North Pakaraimas. Preliminary investigations at the time had revealed that La Cruz and another man, both employed at a dredging operation, were in the kitchen area when they were approached by three males who accused them of stealing gold from a sluice box.

The men were then ordered to a nearby watch camp where they met another man. It is alleged that the suspects, armed with a handgun, cutlasses and a mattock handle, dealt the men several blows about their bodies, causing injuries, after which they left the area. The injured men were assisted by public-spirited citizens and taken towards the river front. However, Rowell La Cruz succumbed to his injuries while being transported and his body was later placed at a nearby camp. Police ranks subsequently visited the scene where the body of the deceased was found lying motionless with marks of violence about his body. The body was escorted to the Linden Hospital Complex Mortuary, where it was pronounced dead on arrival by a doctor on duty. The two other men who were injured during the incident were taken to separate medical facilities.