June 16, 2016 Source

Acting Police Commissioner David Ramnarine yesterday said that despite persons being charged in connection with the recent grenade throwing incident, police investigators are continuing to pursue the intellectual authors.

Ramnarine spoke to the media shortly after three men were remanded to prison for their alleged role in this crime which he said was motivated by the intention to “drive fear (and) cause some damage”.

This is the first time that the police have publicly given a motive for the incident which occurred two Saturdays ago outside the office of Kaieteur News. The grenade which did not explode landed next to a parked vehicle which is owned and driven by the newspaper’s owner Glen Lall. Over a dozen young men were arrested and the vehicle suspected to have been used to transport the person who threw the explosive device was impounded.

Speaking to reporters at his Eve Leary office, Ramnarine said that investigating this incident was no easy task but at this point in time the Force is satisfied with the work done by investigators.

“This was not a simple matter and work is continuing and we will work and we are working diligently to bring the others who are on the run to justice”, he said.

While describing the matter as one of national importance, Ramnarine said that persons both here and overseas have expressed condemnation for what had occurred.

He said that given that there has been an “acceptable level of success” he thought it best to make a public statement.

Based on the investigations, the plan was conceptualized on June 2nd, developed on the 3rd and executed on the night of the 4th.

“It is unfortunate that thus far we have not been able to zero in on the intellectual authors of this heinous crime”, Ramnarine said, though he added that the matter is not yet closed.

Despite the court appearances, he said  ”This is not the end of this investigation.

We still have a wanted bulletin out and there may be one or two persons of interest in the matter that we are continuing to work diligently to find whoever they are and to bring them to justice”.

Calling the incident “a dastardly and cowardly act”, he recalled that in the aftermath several calls were made to him and several members of the force. “In some of those calls I gather that there were some element of doubt as to whether or not we would be able to break this matter”, he said.

Ramnarine said that when the police assessed this investigation “it was really an investigation that epitomises the conscientiousness, diligence and resilience of criminal investigators. It is so good to the extent that time and again we have been criticised for only going after certain types of crimes and being unable to solve other crimes and a whole host of things”.

He said that the success thus far also points to a very high degree of collaboration between investigators in A Division (Brickdam) and CID Headquarters.

Ramnarine reminded reporters that Divisional Commander Clifton Hicken had pledged that the matter will be solved.  “The commander and I have been in constant discussions over the last few days ….”, he said noting that he had indicated that if he felt that the investigators were not up to that task then he would have sent the investigation to another area in the Force. “Happily, fortunately, there was no such need to do that and I was always convinced that there was no need to do it”, he said.

He spoke of the support received from retired officers of the Force and civilians in society who time and again “provided valuable bits of information to the investigators all of which they have worked on and there is some that they still need to follow up on”.

He continuously expressed gratitude to the other persons who provided invaluable assistance to the Force in this particular matter.

“You can feel justifiable proud that the Force has…turned the corner and so you can feel assured that this police force is on the road to making the kind of progress to ensure that citizens can feel comfortable that we can deliver”, he said.

Ramnarine said that the Force continues to receive a lot of support in the areas of training and equipment.

“We were able to reciprocate in terms of the assistance we have been receiving from the ABC countries, from Russia, China in the form of training for our ranks , Italy (and) a whole host of places”, while pointing out that this training is often “free”.

He applauded Commissioner Seelall Persaud and the Divisional Commanders for their continued efforts to strengthen relations with members of the public.