Two killed in shootout with
Police
-- two others escape from hijacked car
THE Self Loading Rifle found in the
hijacked car.
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| POLICE opened rapid gunfire on at least four men
in a hijacked car yesterday, killing fugitive Quame
Pindleton and Leroy Lowe, of Buxton, East Coast
Demerara, and were last night continuing the hunt for
those who managed to escape.
One Policeman was slightly wounded in the
shootout on the main road at Turkeyen, East Coast
Demerara, and reports said one of the escaped men may
have been shot in a leg.
Pindleton, 23, of 10 Durban Street, Lodge,
Georgetown, was a prime suspect in the shooting to death
of Police Constable Adrian London on a city street
earlier this month.
Lowe, an ex-Policeman, operated a mini-bus
service on the lower East Coast, reports
said.
THE handgun used by one of the gunmen
yesterday.
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| The high drama began around 10:00 hrs when Police
intercepted motor car PEE 1951 on the stretch of road
near the intersection that leads to the University of
Guyana.
Pindleton and his accomplices were in the car
which was reported to have been hijacked at Annandale,
another East Coast village.
On seeing the Police, the men opened fire and the
Police responded, witnesses said.
Sources said the men were being trailed by the
Police in a bus from Buxton and roadblocks were set up
along the East Coast highway and the former railway
embankment road.
According to sources, as the men fired at the
Policemen, one of them emerged from the car, shooting at
the busload of cops.
A SECTION of the crowd at the scene of
the shootout. |
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| One bullet reportedly hit a Policeman on the head
but he was not wounded - thanks to his protective
headgear.
At this point, according to the sources, the same
Policeman decided that it was "do or die", and he
emerged from his vehicle, aiming sustained fire at the
gunmen.
He reportedly fired some forty-three rounds,
killing both Pindleton and Lowe.
As traffic backed up and drivers and others tried
to keep out of the line of fire during the shootout, two
of the men in the car managed to escape.
Police recovered a Self Loading Rifle (SLR), a
9mm handgun, a quantity of ammunition and other items in
the vehicle the men were in.
Pindleton and Lowe were wearing several pieces of
gold jewellery on their necks, fingers and
ears.
THE Police vehicle after the
shootout.
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| Shortly after the shootout, the two who fled,
reportedly scaled the western fence of the nearby
Beharry business family house and then jumped the fence
on the southern side heading towards the East Coast
embankment road.
A number of Policemen were engaged in the hunt
for the men in the Beharry compound, when it was
believed that they were holding the maid of the house
hostage.
Ranks surrounded the compound from all ends and
security personnel at the residence of the American
Ambassador, located just behind the Beharry house, were
on high alert.
Other ranks also staked out in front of the
Beharry house, prepared for combat.
However, according to Police Commissioner, Mr.
Floyd McDonald, a search of the Beharry compound and the
residence proved empty and he said there was no evidence
to suggest that the men were in the
compound.
The articles discovered by Police in the
car from which four men fired at the Police.
(Police photo)
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| Law enforcement ranks, who were out in full force
and fully armed, later pulled out of the
area.
Efforts to get a comment from the Beharry's
proved futile.
Beharry Deputy Chief of Security, Mr. Steve
Warrick, said that he had briefed the Beharry Directors
on the incident and they were the ones to give any
information.
Asked for comment, Mr. Anand Beharry, one of the
directors, said he had not been briefed.
Mr. Rickford Cozier of West Ruimveldt,
Georgetown, said he was on his way to Ogle when he was
caught up in the crossfire.
He said he was in his mini-bus GDD 189 in front
of the gunmen's vehicle when the shooting
began.
Mr. Rickford Cozier was caught in the
crossfire between the Police and the
gunmen.
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| Police ordered him to leave his vehicle and drop
to the ground in front of it for cover, as bullets flew
all around, he said.
Cozier, 40, was visibly shaken and said that all
he heard were sudden gunshots before he was ordered to
hit the ground.
The East Coast highway in the vicinity of the
shootout was soon in sheer chaos, as persons flocked to
the area to see the bodies of Pindleton and
Lowe.
Two Policemen and a teenager were brutally shot
dead when a gang went on a rampage after midnight last
Sunday at Rose Hall town, Berbice.
Police Constables Ramphal Pardat and Outar
Kissoon, and Essequibo Balram Khandai, 18, were killed
by the group of heavily armed men following a number of
robberies and an attack on the Rose Hall Police
outpost.
Some 12 men reportedly landed by boat on the
coast in the area and fled by the same means after the
two-hour rampage.
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