Murder weapon found on robbery suspect

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Bartica-stolen-gun  Dhanwantie Phulchand

The gun used in the year-old murder of Gangadeen Khedoo was yesterday found in the possession of a suspected robber who was shot during a confrontation with police. The suspect told Stabroek News a different version of events from his hospital bed yesterday.

Gangadeen Khedoo

According to a statement from the police, the .32 Taurus revolver licensed to Khedoo was retrieved from the suspected robber after he was shot at the Vendor's Mall, on Water Street. The shooting took place at 8:45 am.

Police officers had pursued the man to the mall on the report that he had committed a robbery. He is alleged to have drawn the gun on the policeman who gave chase and refused to drop the weapon when cautioned to do so. As a result, he was shot once in the upper thigh. Police said the man is currently under police guard at the Georgetown Public Hospital.

The Taurus revolver, along with three live rounds and a spent shell were retrieved from the man. Khedoo, a businessman of the New Diamond/Grove Housing Scheme, was killed with his own gun in April last year during a robbery at his home.

Two men, who were armed with cutlasses, carried out the attack. One of the men chopped Khedoo in the head, disarmed him, and then shot him. The murder has remained unsolved.

Anthony Primo

Anthony Primo, 20, of Laing Avenue, the man who was shot yesterday has, however, denied the robbery allegation, saying that he was shot mistakenly since the real robber ran away. Eyewitnesses however confirmed that Primo had attacked a man with a gun and relieved him of his gold chain. Primo is currently under police guard at the Georgetown Public Hospital. He said ranks have since put to him that they found a pistol, which they said he threw away.

According to Primo the police have also told him that the weapon was used to kill a man at the New Diamond Housing Scheme. Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday, the man said that he had asked his employer for time off to go and shop in downtown Georgetown yesterday morning when the incident occurred.

Primo said that he had around $1,000 in his pocket and was going in search of greens in the vicinity of the Vendors' Arcade on Water Street. He said around 8:30 am while walking he saw a man run past him. Primo said when he looked around, he saw a man on a motorcycle in hot pursuit.

He told Stabroek News that as the man ran past him, the one on the motorcycle fired a shot which hit him on the upper right thigh. Primo said he immediately collapsed on the ground. The man on the motorcycle, he said, continued to pursue the other man but apparently did not find him.

Primo said the motorcyclist returned later, looked at him and went away. He said he managed to limp onto the pavement and begged a woman to call a taxi for him, but no one paid him any heed.

Shortly after, a vanload of police pulled up at the scene, Primo said. He said one of the ranks kicked him in his stomach and started to accuse him of being a thief. He was then escorted to the hospital. Primo said the police have said that they found a weapon, which he threw away. "But I didn't have no gun. I want them to prove that my fingerprints deh on the weapon," Primo declared from his hospital bed.