prisoners waltzed through front gate as police watched walls

– Top Cop on prison break

During the disastrous sequence of events that led to prisoners escaping and the wooden Camp Street prison being razed to the ground on Sunday, it was the armed forces’ focused attention on the walls of the prison that allowed the escapees to walk right out the front door.
This is according to Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud, who was asked during a press conference on Thursday at the Public Security Ministry about the whereabouts of his ranks when the prisoners escaped the inferno and proceeded to hijack a vehicle.
“The security on the perimeter of the Georgetown prisons was directed at prisoners escaping through the walls of the prison and not on the front gate, which the prison controls,” he explained. “What happened on the day in question is (the) fires in the buildings of the Georgetown prisons.”
“So there were several places that were burning,” Persaud explained. The prison officers at the front gate were overpowered and five men came out of that gate, headed down Camp Street, and hijacked a car in which four of them escaped. “The other one went back into the prison.”
Detailing the difficulties Police ranks faced while trying to control the situation, Persaud admitted that the Police on the streets guarding the perimeter of the prison were so focused on the walls they “didn’t even notice persons passing them on Camp Street”.
“That wasn’t their focus and it happened very quickly,” the Top Cop said. “So in the circumstances, it is understandable that they could have eluded the attention of those ranks,” he contended.
A group of prisoners on Sunday afternoon staged an attack on the prison officials and set the Camp Street Prison alight. Reports are that the prison escapees exited the front gate armed with guns and other weapons.
The fire began in the south-eastern side of the Prison, and as the smoke spread throughout the building, prisoners were heard shouting for help from Durban Street, as the building was placed on lockdown to prevent more criminals from escaping.
Shortly after, the angry prisoners were heard rattling the grilles and hitting the zinc fence that surrounds the prison.
However, pandemonium broke out when the prisoners in the smoke-consumed buildings began hurling large stones in their numbers through the vents in the upper floor, at the hundreds of civilians and Police Officers who had surrounded the location.
As Police sought to set up barricades around the apparent “war zone” to protect civilians, a few disobedient spectators received minor injuries from the stones thrown in their direction.
Moreover, spectators were seen running as gunshots were being fired at them randomly, during an apparent shootout with prisoners in one of the buildings and the Police outside.
Officials from the Army were seen crouching behind objects with large rifles as they avoided and retaliated towards the shots fired at them from the criminals, who were attacking while being in the almost completely burnt building.
In the aftermath of the disaster, which has attracted international attention, a number of prison officers were injured; one, Odinga Wickham, fatally. Police have issued wanted bulletins for Mark Royden Durant, Uree Varswyck, Stafrei Hopkinson Alexander, Cobena Stephens, Cornelius Thomas and Desmond James.
Durant, also known as Royden Williams and “Smallie”, was charged along with several others for the 2008 mass killing at Bartica. The other escapees were also imprisoned for murder.
A manhunt is currently underway for these fugitives.