Man wanted for murder stabs police during arrest

The prime suspect in the recent murder of a pensioner and the wounding of a taxi driver at Port Kaituma, North West District (NWD), Region One, stabbed a police officer multiple times before he was finally apprehended. The severely wounded rank, Lance Corporal Bertland Scotland, was stabbed at 16:40hrs Monday afternoon during the process of arresting the wanted man. According to Commander of Region One, Jairam Ramlakhan, his ranks had received information that the suspect was hiding at S1A Junction, Port Kaituma.

The officers arrived at the location and found the suspect in the upper flat of a two-storey building.

While they closed in on him, he appeared with a knife and dealt Scotland stabs to the left hand, left hip, lower abdomen, left eye and left buttock. The wanted man was soon overpowered by the other ranks with Force, placed in handcuffs and taken to the Port Kaituma Police Station lock-ups while Scotland was rushed to the district hospital. Scotland was subsequently air dashed to the city for further treatment at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). Residents of Port Kaituma have welcomed the news of the fugitive’s arrest but in the vein were sad that Corporal Scotland was seriously injured in the process.

Scotland is believed to be the third victim to have suffered from the brutal stabbing attacks at the hands of the now captured man. On September 5, Earl Peters, 75, a security guard attached to the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM) Office was found by a businessman soaked in blood and lying on the train line.

Minutes before he drew his last breath at the Port Kaituma District Hospital, the pensioner had reportedly revealed key details of his attacker.

Kaieteur News was told by a source that Peters had told police he was attacked by a man close to a jamoon tree.

A subsequent autopsy conducted on Peter’s body revealed that he had died from haemorrhage and shock due to multiple stab wounds.

Six days later a taxi driver, Troy Roberts, had to run for his life after he was stabbed to his neck by a passenger while driving along Airstrip Road.

According to police reports, Roberts had picked up the passenger and a gold miner, 26, at a location within the community. After the attack, the taxi driver stopped his car and ran away while the passenger moved over to the driving seat and sped off. He crashed soon after and managed to escape leaving his injured accomplice behind.

Roberts was rescued and taken to hospital while the injured gold miner was arrested.

The accomplice sustained a fractured arm and both he and Roberts were airlifted to Georgetown for treatment at the GPHC.

During the search for Roberts’ attacker, investigators had told Kaieteur News that the alleged perpetrator was the prime suspect in the murder of the pensioner. He was also named in the wounding of another police officer at Arakaka, Region One back in August. A background check on him revealed that he was no stranger to the law, prior to this. In April of 2014, he was placed before the courts and remanded to prison for the alleged beating to death of a Brazilian miner, Joao De Souza, 57, at Five Miles, Port Kaituma.

After spending five years on remand, he was acquitted of the murder by a High Court jury on November 28, 2019. Kaieteur News had reported then that the man, with tears in his eyes, had walked away a free man.

(Kaieteur News)