“We never bought his story” – family of suspect in Coldingen hit and run

– suspect holding out that he did not hit anyone

By LaWanda McAllister

As the investigation into the Coldingen, East Coast Demerara (ECD) fatal hit-and-run intensifies, the family of the alleged prime suspect, 45-year-old Rayon Rodney, a US-based Guyanese has stepped forward to encourage the man to turn himself in to the police.

With mounting evidence against the alleged suspect, whose actions led to the demise of 25-year-old Adzel Inniss a truck driver of Burma Housing Scheme in Mahaicony, ECD, the alleged suspect’s family said they will not side with his wrongdoings.
In an interview on Friday, a family member told the Guyana Times that since the incident they have been working with the police to have the man found, arrested and prosecuted for the alleged crime.
“So, he usually borrows the car from his cousin-in-law – his wife’s cousin. It is not the first time he would borrow the car. He came into the country for his grandmother’s funeral, and he collected the car and had it by the house he was staying in Victoria”, the relative explained.
“He was supposed to have the car for three days because he came into the country for the funeral on a Thursday. He collected the car on the night before the funeral and said he was going to take it back the Friday morning because he was leaving on Friday evening. On Friday morning the owner of the car got a call from the person he [the alleged suspect] was staying with, saying Rayon jammed the car and that they should come and see the damage, and that he [Rayon] will fix it”.
“The owner went to see the car and he called the bodywork man to give an estimate of how much to fix the vehicle…when we [the family] found out, he [the alleged suspect] said a truck hit him and drove away. So, we asked him what did the truck driver say and if he drove behind the car to get the number plate and he said no. We said we don’t buy that story; we never bought his story”.

The relative claimed that the vehicle remained at the house in which the alleged suspect was staying because his cousin-in-law refused to have it moved until it was fixed even though the alleged suspect promised to stand the expenses.
“From the look on the car I thought he probably hit an animal…so everyone just went on living their lives normally until the police turned up at his cousin-in-law’s house and told him that his car hit somebody down and drove away…”, they said.
The relative added that on that same day, the owner of the car contacted the man and told him that the police were in search of him for a hit-and-run accident. They claimed that the man admitted to driving the car at the time, but kept holding out that he did not hit anyone but it was a truck that hit him.
“He wouldn’t admit it is someone he hit. He keeps saying it is a truck. He was acting very normal and he kept saying that the accident did not happen at the Chico gas station, it happened at another gas station… it is then we know the full story of what really happened. The cousin-in-law was arrested because he is the owner of the car …we don’t feel at any point the police question the people that the car was at or other persons…that car was just five months old”, they explained
The family, torn between loyalty and the pursuit of justice, emphasized the importance of accountability, expressing sympathy for the victim’s family and the need for closure in this tragic incident.
“We don’t what the police are doing to get him charged for the incident but we have been trying too. Since the incident, he deleted his social media pages, especially Facebook, and his wife took down all of her pictures on Facebook. Since the incident, contact was made with his wife and she said she was sorry how things happened and she was helping with some information…”, the relative explained.
The alleged suspect, who reportedly fled the country following the hit-and-run incident, is accused of striking Inniss with a black Toyota Fielder Wagon on September 22, 2023, near the Chico Ramas Gas Station in Coldingen, ECD.
Shortly after the incident, police located the suspected vehicle involved in the hit-and-run, registered as motor car PAD 9709, in Victoria, ECD. Investigators stated that the alleged suspect’s family after the discovery, said that they were unaware of the incident and had been wrongfully implicated in the case.
They claimed that Rodney was driving the car on the night of the accident and left the country just hours after he allegedly struck down and killed Iniss.
The case, which is currently under the scrutiny of the Director of Public Prosecutions, has stirred emotions in both the victim’s and the alleged suspect’s families. As investigations continue, the alleged suspect’s family said that are hoping that justice is served for Innis’s family.