Seawall shooting
…Crime Chief distances himself from Police background information
The Guyana Police Force is now coming in for harsh criticism following the shooting of three suspected bandits at the Kingston seawalls on Thursday, since the information they initially provided on one of the men, Kwame Assanah, is reportedly false.
Kwame Assanah’s brother, Lawrence, and his widow Claire, along with his sister
That information has since caused Crime Chief Paul Williams to distance himself from the Police statement in relaton to Assanah‘s background.
The Police have said that on Robb Street on Thursday at about 10:30hrs, ranks of an anti-crime patrol unit, operating in an unmarked vehicle as they acted on intelligence information, began following a motorcar that two “suspicious looking characters” were reportedly travelling in.
As the ranks continued to observe, the suspected criminals drove to the Kingston Seawall, where an individual who had left a city bank, had parked his motorcar.
At that time, the law enforcement officials who were on the stakeout noticed the two individuals — later identified as Assanah and Dextroy Cordis — exiting their motorcar and approaching the customer’s vehicle; so the Police moved in.
One of the men was reportedly armed with a gun, and he began to open fire on the Police, resulting in a shootout that caused the death of both of the men.
Crime Chief Paul Williams
Additionally, the Police said, two other men came up riding on a CG motorcycle, and they also opened fire on the Police, resulting in the death of Errol Adams while the other man escaped.
In a subsequent statement, the Police said that Assanah and Adams each had a criminal history, while Cordis had recently been granted bail in relation to simple larceny.
However, the Crime Chief has since indicated that he never furnished the Police Public Relations Department with that information, and he has since distanced himself from the information, even as he has since promised to determine where the information of Assanah’s criminal background came from.
“I spoke with them (Assanah’s family) and I told them — and I’m saying it again: In our Public Relations Department release, when I fortified the PR Department with the information, I gave information as it relates to what is known about Errol Adams and what is known about Dextroy Cordis, but at the time when I gave that information, there wasn’t any information that I knew about previous records of involvement of Assanah with the Police. I have never mentioned that, so I don’t know how that type of information would have gone in the midst of that. It was no way in terms of my contribution towards the press release,” Williams explained.
Inquiry
Assanah’s widow, Claire Assanah, has called on the Police to get their records straight and to present the facts of the matter. She has called for an inquiry into the incident.
“Please check his record. Please check it out. Really do your investigation properly. We need a complete inquiry into how and why he died,” the grieving woman said.
She added that the family was never formally informed of the incident, and explained that at about 16:00h, she attempted to make contact with her husband, who had to pick up their son.
“How I was contacted was that I kept calling his phone on numerous occasions, because he had to collect his son, and on the fifth call somebody answered, and they said is the Police and the ruckus behind is Kwame wife, he’s dead, Kwame is dead, and they told me to come down to the CID Department,” she related.
Claire said that her husband was recently hired by Courts Guyana Inc as a debt collector, and he had recently acquired a Police Clearance with no red flags.
The man’s brother, Lawrence Assanah, has said the family visited the Crime Chief on Friday.
“We had a one-on-one (discussion) with the Crime Chief, and he said that he did not get those information to his department. He said when he get the information about these three persons, he sent them to get the facts, and they get facts on two, and all they get (on him) is his name is Kwame and he is from Buxton. When he get that, he made a call to three well known persons in Buxton and tell them to give him information on Kwame, and he said after 10 minutes he get no information (from his sources), and that is when he went and talk to the Public Relations Department. He said that he did not give such information that Kwame was arrested,” the grieving man said.
Up to press time, the Police were yet to issue a statement on the misinformation. They said that their investigation is ongoing.
