Indentureship Indian Heritage Month May 05

Escapees charged in city robbery
-- woman, taxi drivers charged in related incidents
POLICE have formally charged four of the five February 23 prison escapees with robbing Georgetown businessman Patrick Seebaran last week Friday, as they continue investigations into a series of daring robberies and car hijackings since the jailbreak.

The five were still at large but another man charged in the Seebaran robbery yesterday appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Juliet Holder-Allen

Charges of robbery under arms were read for prison escapees Dale Moore, Shawn Brown, Andrew Douglas and Troy Dick.

Colville Kellman, of 43 Craig Street, Campbellville, Georgetown, charged with the four, was refused bail.

Police said the men on Friday attacked and robbed Seebaran, of Patsan's Trading, of US$23,000, $30,000 Guyana currency, jewellery, a cellular phone, a camera, keys for the businessman's vehicle and some documents.

Kellman was also charged along with two other persons with being an "accessory after the fact" and was placed on $45,000 bail.

Taxi driver, Bryan Holder of 51 Sheriff Street, Campbellville, and Youlanda McDonald of 59 D'Urban Street, Lodge, Georgetown, were charged along with Kellman with impeding the apprehension or prosecution of escapee Moore, and were placed on $45,000 and $35,000 bail, respectively.

Another taxi driver, Patrick Samogan of 42 Norton Street, Lodge, was also charged with being an "accessory after the fact" in relation to the robbery under arms committed on Seebaran and was granted $35,000 bail.

The defendants have to return to court during next week.

Police yesterday continued an intensive hunt for the five escapees.

A gang of heavily armed men, believed to be the escapees, engaged the Police in a shootout lasting some two hours at a house in Prashad Nagar, Georgetown, Saturday evening.

Earlier in the day, the Police had swooped on a house in North Ruimveldt, Georgetown, and found evidence that the bandits had been there.

Following the Saturday night shootout, Police issued a press release saying they are convinced that the prison escapees are being provided with "logistical and moral support".

Police are offering a $10M reward for information leading to the recapture of the five escapees - Dick, Moore, Douglas, Brown and Mark Fraser.

Police said the gang was involved in the killing of well-known anti-crime fighter, Police Superintendent Leon Fraser on April 2 when he and other cops closed in on a car partly hidden in a clump of bushes at Yarowkabra on the Linden/Soesdyke highway.

Fraser, shot in the head, was the second murder victim of the band which also killed Prison Officer Troy Williams, 21, when it broke out of the Georgetown jail.

One of the five also shot Woman Prison Officer, Roxanne Whinfield, 36, in the head as they fled and she remains in critical condition at a medical institution overseas

Chronicle on line-May 09,2002