- Joint Services found speedboat, army regulation kit, fuel believed to have been left behind by the bandits
AS Barticians continue to live in virtual fear following Sunday night’s massacre of 12 people by a rampaging group of heavily-armed gunmen, the discovery by members of the Joint Services of a speedboat at St Mary’s Quarry, is welcoming news.

The 22-ft craft which was equipped with a 75 HP Yamaha engine, also contained fuel, army regulation kit, cloak, toques and a .30 carbine round of ammunition.

Because of the contents, it is felt that it may have been one of the get-away vessels which the gunmen used to escape and may have been abandoned hastily.

Yesterday, the Police arrested and detained a boat captain as they continued their

investigations.
Meanwhile, some residents of Bartica are now questioning whether there are ‘wolves in sheep clothing living among them’.

So scared are they that the once busy community, often times referred to as the community that never sleeps, is like a ghost town from early afternoon as resident now resort to close shutters from early afternoon.

Sunday night’s cold-blooded slaughter of 12 persons from the community, including three policemen by a rampaging group, is reminiscent of a similar attack by armed gunmen on the East Coast Demerara community of Lusignan three weeks earlier that left 12 persons dead and four injured, two of whom are still hospitalized.

Dead in the Bartica carnage are Lance Corporal 18632 Zaheer Zakir; Constable 16906 Shane Fredericks and Constable 19886 Ron Osborne, all of the Guyana Police Force.

Security guards Edwin Gilkes who was on duty at the Banks DIH outlet on First Avenue, Irwin Ferreira who was working at the home of miner Chunilall Babulall, also of First Avenue, Bartica and hire-car driver, Dexter Adrian, 38 years of One Mile, Potaro, Bartica Road, were also killed.

Adrian who on his way to purchase gasoline, came face to face with the gunmen on First Avenue.

Injured are Constables 20219 Mark Campbell, shot in the upper left side and 20231 Chester Benjamin who was shot in both hands and the right hip; Melrose Allicock of Bartica Housing Scheme who was in the company of Gilkes; 15-year-old Lisa Narine – who was shot in her left foot while assisting her mother to sell and, Jadarson Dos Santos, a 14-year-old Brazilian and Raymond White who was a passenger in Adrian’s vehicle.