No permission given for torching Toucan - owner - says police knew which apartment 'Blackie' was in Stabroek News February 14, 2000 The police arrived at the Toucan Guest House on Tuesday evening where Linden London was registered, declaring their intention to go to war with him as they shot at the apartment which he occupied, according to owner and general manager, Norman Trotz. According to Trotz, who spoke with Stabroek News yesterday at the rubble-strewn compound of his apartments, the Police went into action without regard to the lives and safety of his staff who were at the time in the reception area of the building. He told Stabroek News, which toured the site at his invitation, that when the police arrived they scaled the walls of the compound and began firing at the apartment. His staff and the people in the office at the time waiting to make phone calls had to hit the floor as they sought refuge from the gunfire around them. During a lull in the fierce exchange of fire they fled the compound. The apartment in which London, better known as `Blackie', was cornered was the only one occupied that evening as Trotz said that he was preparing for a party of corporate guests who were due to arrive on Wednesday. Assistant Commissioner Henry Greene who was in command of operations at the Eccles, East Bank Demerara guest house, told a press conference on Wednesday that the Police party which first arrived at the scene was unaware as to the apartment `Blackie' had occupied and had unfortunately knocked at the one he was in and to which `Blackie' had responded by firing upon them. Trotz debunked the description of the building as a fortress by Police Commissioner, Laurie Lewis, and berated the media for not checking for themselves to examine how the edifice was constructed. He showed Stabroek News reporters walls which were in part constructed with designer blocks and hollow blocks covered by a quarter inch of plaster inside and out. The inner walls were finished with sheet rock. The police had said that the walls were composed of solid cast concrete. The doors, Trotz said, were made of plyboard and wood. The grills on the doors and windows were no different than that installed in any other residential home, he explained as he showed reporters around. He demonstrated the strength of the walls with three blows with a hammer which made a hole in the walls. Police Commissioner Lewis described the building as fortress and gave that as one of the reasons why it was difficult to dislodge `Blackie' from the apartment during the 11-hour operation. Thousands of rounds of ammunition, anti-tank weapons, tear-gas and grenades were used in the police/army onslaught to eject London from the apartment. Trotz said that he had supervised the renovation of the building into eight apartments, furnishing them one by one and regarded the building as his pet project. He told Stabroek News that he played in the building as a child as he had grown up in the area and had lived down the road south of the hotel. Trotz also said that he did not give the police permission to burn the guest house as when first approached he had directed the officer, Assistant Commissioner, Greene, to his attorney who was in the vicinity at the time. Greene, Trotz said, had told him he would get back to him but that he never did. He added that since Wednesday following the Police press conference, he had been trying to contact Police Commissioner, Lewis, but had not yet been able to speak with him. Trotz is also angry at Lewis's inference at the press conference that he might have knowingly harboured a felon. Lewis at a press conference had said that he had not approached nor had he been by Trotz in relation to compensation for the building, explaining that because of considerations relating to the laws of knowingly harbouring a felon and accomplices before and after the fact he felt that the issue should best be dealt with between Trotz and the lawyers. Trotz said that he had at all times cooperated with the Police during the exercise, adding that he had informed them as to how the apartment could have been approached during the siege but that the police ranks refused, contending that it was too dangerous. Because the other apartments were unoccupied, Trotz said that it would have been possible for the police to occupy the adjoining apartments as well as position themselves in the outdoor bar and in the guard hut if they had wanted to capture London without enduring the 11-hour shoot-out. In this way Trotz said that they would have been able to apprehend London as he left the guest house. The compound, Trotz said, had just one entrance and exit and was designed that way so that his security staff could keep a check on persons entering and leaving the hotel. In the 11 hours that it took to lay siege to London's apartment, Trotz argued that if the police and army had laid in wait for him to emerge they would have been able to capture him without so much damage to property and without exposing the residents to so much danger. The Police Commissioner at the press conference said too that waiting `Blackie' out was not an option open to the Police as if he had gotten away, the calls for resignations could not have been denied. Trotz was also critical of the indiscriminate shooting pointing out that most of the gunfire into the building was concentrated on parts of the structure rather than the ground floor apartment in the southern side of the building where London was holed up. Stabroek News observed that unlike the other areas which were pockmarked from gunfire, the other wall of the bedroom to which London had retreated remained unmarked. Trotz was also critical of the police search of the debris before the building was handed back to him. He pointed out that since it was transferred on Friday, he had turned over yesterday to the Police a cell phone which was found in the toilet, the receipt for which Stabroek News has seen. On Saturday, he said that he had found and handed over to the Police a 9 mm pistol and a large amount of live and spent ammunition. And on Friday when the site was turned over to him, his crew had found a small grenade, another grenade which had not exploded and two to three flares.