Crime Chief… 14% increase in murders countrywide –urges citizens report brawls to prevent murders
CRIME Chief Wendell Blanhum says interpersonal violence, rum shop brawls, shootings, and disputes have contributed to the 79 murders recorded for this year, so far.He has noted that there has been an increase of 14% in murders countrywide, which is very alarming and asked that persons adopt more responsible behaviour and intervene or inform the police.
The senior superintendent revealed that the police have tallied six execution-style murders this year, while last year for the same period there were two.
Giving statistics, he said the Guyana Police Force (GPF) recorded 13 each as regards robbery/murder both in 2015 and in 2014 respectively.
Blanhum stated that there have been nine domestic murders this year, while for the corresponding period last year there were 20, which saw a reduction this year by 55%.
As for disorderly murders, the crime chief noted that in so far in 2015 there have been 29 and in 2014 there were 15 with an 81% increase.
He said that they have 22 unknown murders this year, while in 2014 they had eight.
Blanhum stated that the Major Crime Investigation Unit (MCIU) successfully solved many homicides with support from the Crime Intelligence Unit, both operating out of the Criminal Investigations Department, Eve Leary.
He explained that when the police receive a report, they respond promptly but they are encouraging society to play their part also in reporting incidents of fights, etc. so that murders could be prevented.
A typical case is the murder of music cart vendor Leroy Moore at a bar at Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara, recently.
He added that if the bar attendant had promptly reported to the police that there was a row among the patrons, ranks would have been able to show up there and prevent that homicide.
Alluding to the fact that instead of persons informing the police of brawls and heated quarrels which often turn deadly, they film or record the incidents and take it to social media such as facebook, Blanhum said.
He urged that citizens intervene in such incidents instead of turning a blind eye or filming it and call the police to prevent such occurrences of murders.
Meanwhile, at the end of June 2015, the GPF said it had recorded a 9% increase in serious crimes in comparison to the same period in 2014.
Among the serious crimes policed by the force are murder, robbery under arms, robbery with violence, robbery with aggravation, larceny from the person, break and enter and larceny, burglary, rape, and kidnapping.
A total of 79 murders were recorded at the end of June 2015 in comparison to 69 murders at the end of June 2014, an increase of 14%.
Unto the 10th of this month, July 2015, one other murder has been recorded.
At the end of June 2015, robbery under arms overall has decreased by 6% in comparison to the same period in 2014. The statistics indicate a decrease of 9% in the number of armed robberies involving the use of firearms; while the number of armed robberies where instruments other than firearms were used by the perpetrators is almost similar.
There has been an increase of 74% in the number of reports of rape with 207 reports at the end of June this year, compared to 119 for the same period last year. Break and Enter and Larceny and Burglary have shown an overall increase of 9%.
Unto the end of June this year, a total of 61 illegal firearms have been recovered by the police, including one sub-machine gun, 35 pistols, 14 revolvers, four shotguns, six rifles and one pen-gun.
