Sterling Products shooting… Police take three into custody

POLICE were last evening questioning three men whom they picked up after five gunmen stormed Sterling Products Limited at Providence, East Bank Demerara, Monday evening.

The arrests were made early yesterday morning, after the police conducted searches at the home of the three men; a Toyota 212 motorcar was also impounded by the police as part of the investigation.
The police had received information that the men might have been involved in the armed attack at the Providence business when a security guard was shot dead and a quality assurance chemist suffered a gunshot wound to the leg.
Immediately after the incident on Monday night, police went to an East Bank Demerara community after they received information that a car load with the five men had gone in that direction but the initial cordon and search operation failed to net anyone.
The police up to yesterday were again reviewing blurred video footage from the crime scene as they seek to put the pieces together. Police sources said that based on the footage, they were able to ascertain the number of persons who had entered the business premises and that they all came in one vehicle.
Another news report had incorrectly reported that ten men had stormed the business place, but a senior police source has since refuted this.
On Monday evening security guard Wilfred Steve Stewart, a 40-year-old father of two, from Graham’s Hall, East Coast Demerara, was shot and killed after the gunmen entered the premises. From all indications, the gunmen first turned their attention to the security guard who was carrying a firearm.
After shooting him, the bandits attempted to make their way into the building to the Accounts Department but were unable to break into the money safe as the alarm went off.
They then hurriedly left the premises but not before taking away the firearm from the guard who was already dead and they fled farther up the East Bank Demerara.
Meanwhile, senior managers of Sterling Products Limited yesterday paid a visit to the home of the murdered security guard, where they spoke with his widow and children. They also visited the injured chemist, Mario Gohill, 31.