PNCR calls for inquiry into ‘Most Wanted’ shooting death
President Jagdeo says “No”

By Stanford Conway
Editor-in-Chief-SKNVibes.com

PNCR executive member Aubrey Norton

According to Caribbean Net News, during a media conference on Thursday last, Norton said he was still unsure as to why criminal elements such as Rawlins could not be captured alive and fingered.

“The PNCR was of the opinion that the security forces could have captured the men alive and, as a result, have called for an investigation into the shooting death of the men,” Caribbean Net News reported him as saying.

It also noted that President Jagdeo said he had no time to waste with the PNCR and the

Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins

One of the sentiments expressed by Norton states, “Criminals, where possible, should be caught and brought to justice, and you must be able to do investigations and get to the root cause for crime.”

Jermaine ‘Skinny’ Charles

He added that the death of Fineman and one of his accomplices “must not cause us to lose sight of the extant reality that there is a need to deal with the deep-seated causes of crime. These causes are interwoven into the fabric of the Guyanese society and have to be dealt with if we are to overcome the scourge of criminality”.

Norton noted that this should be done together with a comprehensive security plan and a policy of seeking to apprehend criminals, so that there can be an understanding of the criminal enterprise and the development of strategies to destroy the violent and drug-related criminal enterprise at its root.

Kaieteur News also stated that Norton said his party “sees this as creating the necessary space for the Government to develop

Guns and ammunition recovered from the late fugitives

Since the February 23, 2002 jailbreak involving Andrew Douglas, Dale Moore, Shawn Brown, Troy Dick and Mark Fraser, the PNCR has been accused of having knowledge of the criminals who were hiding in the community of Buxton, a small village on the East Coast corridor of Demerara, some 10 miles outside Georgetown.

Leaders of the PNCR, including the late Desmond Hoyte, have always denied the accusation and maintained that the main opposition party has and would continue to support the fight against crime.

In a press release last Thursday, the PNCR reiterated its position on crime, noting that it would remain in support of the fight against crime but would not support any act of extra-judicial killings.

~~Adz:Left~~ Even before the death of Fineman, who was an underling in the Andrew Douglas’ Buxton Gang, the PNCR has been calling on the Joint Services not to kill the criminals but to capture them alive so as to interrogate and know the reason(s) behind their activities.

The PNCR has also accused former Minister of Home Affairs Ronald Gajraj of having links with the infamous Phantom Force, led by Guyana’s drug lord Roger Khan, who is now under trial in the US and has admitted to being instrumental in the extra-judicial killing of many criminals and suspected criminals in Guyana.

Earlier in the year, President Jagdeo told the press that the country’s security forces were in possession of video footage with criminal elements taken in the Buxton community during a clandestine operation, and the nation would be surprised at the political figures involved.

However, since the killing of Fineman and his two accomplices, the PNCR and another political party, the Alliance for Change (AFC), have called on the government for the release of the video footage.

But President Jagdeo said, “I don’t want to put anyone at risk. We still feel that there are many elements of the gang out there and we are actively pursuing them now. In fact, I had a report that they (Joint Services) are still looking for members of the gang. So Fineman and Skinny are dead, but there are still other members of the gang, and they had support infrastructure that we are trying to dismantle; so footage is not going to be released.”

Fineman, who had a G$50m bounty on his head, and another dangerous fugitive, Jermaine ‘Skinny’ Charles, reign of terror came to an end when they went down in a hail of bullets during a confrontation with sharpshooters from the Army’s Special Forces and the Guyana Police Force in Kuru Kururu on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway on Thursday,  August 28.

According to news coming out of the South American country, the gunfight started at a squatting area in Timehri North, some 500 metres east of the Guyana Defence Force’s (GDF) Ammunition Dump, and ended at Kuru Kururu on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway.

It was reported that another man, identified as Sean Grant and called ‘Troyee’, was killed in the initial exchange of gunfire at Timehri, while Corporal Andrew Cush of the Special Forces was wounded on his right hand.

It is also believed that Grant, along with his pregnant reputed wife, had been harbouring Fineman and Charles in a shack within which they live at Timehri, and he [Grant] was suspected to have informed on the fugitives and was subsequently killed by one of them. Police are still searching for the pregnant woman, who neighbours said was present during the shooting but had fled the scene unharmed.

The two fugitives then escaped from the area by trekking through swamps and dense jungle aback Timehri for some four miles until they reached Kuru Kururu and was holed up in an unfinished concrete building there.
Acting on a tip off, the two fugitives were cornered by members of the Joint Services at about 12:45 hours and were killed in an exchange of fire.

A search of the building revealed two AK-47 Assault Rifles, one of which belongs to the set stolen from the GDF in 2006, and 215 rounds of 7.62X39 ammunition contained in seven magazines.

Fineman was charged with the murders of Minister Satyadeow Sawh, his two siblings and a security guard, and he was wanted for questioning into 16 other murders in addition to the Lusignan, Bartica and Lindo Creek massacres in which 31 people were killed.

Charles, who had escaped from the Sparendaam Police Station on June 25, was also charged with the murders of Minister Satyadeow Sawh, his two siblings and a security guard. He was also charged with the August 2006 murders of five staff members of Kaieteur News, the August 6 and 8, 2006 murders of Barbot Paul and Wordsworth Gray respectively, the January 23, 2006 murder of Devon Charles and the March 18, 2006 murder of Kevin Browne as well as the attempted murder of Shaundell Browne on the same day.

According to Acting Commissioner of Police Henry Greene, the deaths of Fineman and Charles are by no means the end of the battle against the criminal gang which they reportedly headed, although the security forces have been making significant dents to their establishment.

Since October last year the Joint Services have killed gang members Malcolm ‘Coolie Boy’ Alleyne, Aubrey ‘Dread’ Glasgow, Noel ‘Baby’ James, Orlando ‘Bullet’ Andrews, Troy ‘John I’ St. John, Vivian ‘Bolo’ Harris, Otis ‘Mud Up’ Fifee, Cecil Simeon ‘Uncle Willie’ Ramcharran and Robin ‘Chung Boy’ Chung.

Greene reportedly said, “The search is not over. We want to notify those additional gang members who are still out there that we have not given up the search. We are looking for several men.”

He listed the remaining gang members as Deon ‘Capone’ Cort, also known as ‘Sonny’; Richard Daniels, called ‘Chucky’ and ‘Not Nice’; White Boy called ‘Whitey’ and ‘Ratty’; Aubrey; Cliff Chicheste; and James Gibson among others.