Cop flip-flops on first sighting of Bartica massacre accused

in question was not his client but another Rasta man, and that Benjamin was being mistaken as to identity. The witness, however, disagreed with Hugh’s suggestions.

When asked by Hugh if Simon was among the group which had gone to Bartica and launched the murderous attack, the state’s two main witnesses, Dwane Williams, called “Small Fren” and Clebert Reece, called “Chi Chi” who had testified to being at the scene, had said that he was never there.

‘Played dead’

Earlier, in his evidence-in-chief, Benjamin had testified to hiding in a cupboard in the kitchen at the station, from where he heard the footsteps of men running into the building, ascending the stairs. He said the men started firing shots in the kitchen, saying that they were going to kill everyone.

According to Benjamin, he “played dead,” when one of the gunmen pulled him out of the cupboard and rested his foot on his stomach. He said he then heard the Land Rover drive off in the direction of the stelling, where he heard some five to six gunshots ring out.

The witness who said that he sustained four to five gunshots, noted that Lance Corporal Zakir and Constables Fredericks and Hendricks were all in the kitchen with him. He said that at the back gate, he discovered Constable Osbourne, who appeared to have been already dead.

‘You, run’

Meanwhile, in emotionally gripping testimony, brothers Ishmael and Wilbert Chester recounted escaping being victims of now dead fugitive Rondell “Fine Man” Rawlins gang, who witnesses say led the attack.

Ishmael said that he, along with three crewmembers of the boat on which they transported cargo, had docked at the stelling on the night in question, when a man with a handgun took them off their boat and ordered them to lie face down on the ground.

During that the time, however, Ishmael said that another man came up and told him, “You, run.”

The witness, who said that he was crying and trembling during the half hour for which he lay on the ground, told the court that he immediately got up, jumped off the stelling, and took off running.

At the time he left, Ishmael said, there were five men lying there on the ground. Apart from his crewmembers, he did not know the other two men.

Wilbert, meanwhile, who testified to being the sailor of the boat his brother and the three other crew members were on, told the court that he discovered the bodies of the men when he got back to the stelling after returning from a shop where he had gone to make a purchase.

This witness, who was moved to tears on the stand, recounted returning to the stelling and seeing the bodies of his crewmembers and the other two men who he also said he did not know.

The man told the court that when he felt the motionless bodies of the men, he got no pulse, except for Errol Thomas, one of his crewmembers, who at that time was still alive.

He also recalled his concern about finding his brother, Ishmael, and becoming worried at that time that he had not found him.

Ishmael had, however, testified to running to the home of his employer some distance away from the stelling, where he had spent the rest of that night.

Both of the state’s main witnesses, Dwane Williams and Reece, had testified to gang leader “Fine Man giving Ishmael an opportunity to escape”.

When he had testified, Reece had told the court that he had told Rawlins that he knew Ishmael, after which he (Rawlins) told him to get up and run.

The trial continues this morning at 9, before Justice Roxane George SC, at the High Court in Georgetown.