Questions linger about London operation
The circumstances surrounding the death of Guyana's most wanted criminal is still a source of controversy, and there are several questions relating to it which remain unanswered. The first of these is the number of times London was hit during the fusillade which greeted him as he emerged from his apartment hideout. The post mortem results do not say much beyond the fact that he died of shock and haemorrhage due to multiple gunshot wounds. As is now known, London was wearing a bullet proof vest, but the public has not been told which of the bullets fired was the fatal shot, its angle of entry and the calibre of the weapon used. Also not yet clarified is on which areas of the body members of the security forces concentrated their fire. A description of the calibre of the bullets which hit London could possibly identify the unit which was firing at him when he emerged through the doorway.
Poor co-ordination Exactly what orders were given by whom, to whom and at what stage is still unclear. Nor has it been made public whether any discussion took place between the army and police about the role of the two forces. For its part the government has claimed that the highest ranking officers at the scene did not authorise any negotiation with London for his surrender. According to statements made by both the army and police, London was wanted dead or alive. Informed sources had told this newspaper that for the army 'dead or alive' did not mean dead at all costs. They were not concerned if he died as a result of the use of force to effect his apprehension, however, the military ethic provides for an enemy to be taken alive if in surrendering he poses no threat to the safety of his captors. The senior officers at the scene were the Chief of Staff (CoS), Major General Joe Singh, and the Police Divisional Commander, Assistant Commissioner Henry Greene. Greene was the first of the two on the scene; Singh arrived after the first of the two soldiers was injured. Stabroek News understands that he was there to observe and that he was kept abreast of the plans being followed by the officers in command, who held the rank of captain. Army public relations officer, Capt Wycliffe McAllister, whom the government now say acted without authority in persuading London to come out of the building, was reported to have been ordered to the scene. Media personnel saw McAllister advancing with the GDF units. As stated above, however, in circumstances where the army was called on to flush London out of his hiding place after the police had been unable to do so, it should not have been Greene calling the shots but the GDF officers. According to the sequence of events, soldiers were in the apartment when Private Lennox Harvey was shot in the left eye; and soldiers extricated him from the apartment. When it was decided that nothing less than anti-tank missiles would dislodge London, it was the GDF detachment which deployed the weapon. If the intention was to blow London and the apartment to smithereens, that did not happen; instead London survived the blast, the building caught fire and he was trapped. The public heard on the videotape made by private TV stations the dialogue between London and the soldiers outside the apartment. They heard him being urged to throw out his weapons and to surrender, and they heard him being given assurances of safe conduct if he surrendered. They also saw McAllister's raised hand picked up by the camera, and they heard the shouts of "Hold your fire! Hold your fire!" Questions about the solidity of the Toucan Guest House are also now being posed. Commissioner Lewis had described it as a fortress, with solid concrete walls. This, however, has been contradicted by its owner, and some of the hollow blocks in the ruins of the building have been shown on TV. Whether the best tactics were employed to dislodge London from his hideout is not something which has yet come up for public discussion.
Formidable arsenal 'Blackie', according to another section of the media, was also linked to the killing of a policeman during a robbery at the Anna Regina Branch of the Guyana National Cooperative Bank. The releases issued by the police about the robbery at the time never linked London to that crime, and nor did they do so at the press conference held after the siege. There they only credited him with two murders committed in 1989 at Kaieteur Top. This is another question which has not yet been clarified. Further queries revolve around the source of the weapons in London's arsenal. Some of the weapons were of a kind in use by the army and the police. Were any of them stolen or reported missing from either agency? The Guyana Defence Force, according to Dr Roger Luncheon, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, had not been requested to ascertain if any of the weapons in London's arsenal were missing from its armoury. McAllister, when contacted by Stabroek News, said that the GDF would be issuing no statement on the matter as it was the subject of an ongoing investigation by the police. In the Friday edition of this newspaper, it was alleged that the Sterling sub-machine gun found in the guest-house might belong to the police, although a high-level police source said that there was no evidence to corroborate this. Ballistic tests conducted by the police have linked the Sterling sub-machine gun to the armed robberies at Vryheid's Lust and Sixth Street, Cummings Lodge on August 16 and at Industry Housing Scheme on September 17. The thieves got away with $800,000 and $3.5 million respectively from the Cummings Lodge and Industry Housing Scheme robberies. They said too that the 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun was also used in the robbery at Industry. Another weapon, the AK-47 assault rifle has also been linked through ballistic tests to the armed robbery at Chelsea Park, Mahaica when $1.5 million in cash and jewellery was stolen in August, 1998. In one of the robberies to which London was linked, a 9 mm pistol was reported stolen. Was the 9mm pistol recovered from London's apartment, the same weapon? Was the holder of the weapon a licensed firearm holder?
Rhonda Forde The police stated that Forde's seemingly lifeless body was thrown from the apartment and that the police units were prevented from removing it because grenades were thrown at them by 'Blackie.' There are other reports that she had two bullet wounds in her back. There has been no official statement as to which of the multiple bullet wounds she received was the fatal one, what was the trajectory of the bullet which caused it, what was the calibre of the weapon(s) which caused the wound(s), and whether the calibre matched any of the weapons which were in London's possession. Questions are still outstanding too about how long London was in residence at the Toucan Guest House. Reports say that he had checked into the hotel on Monday. His was the only apartment occupied as Norman Trotz who owns the enterprise said that he was preparing for a party of corporate guests the following week. The hotel management has said that it was not aware of his identity - he registered under a pseudonym, Paul Jones. At a press conference held on the day of London's death, Commissioner of Police Laurie Lewis said that compensation for the destruction of the building would involve consideration of the laws about knowingly harbouring a fugitive, accessory before and after the fact as well as compensation. Trotz has told Stabroek News that he would hardly know who was in residence at the hotel since he spends most of his time at his farm save for early morning checks to just have an eye on things.
London's loot Among the items recovered from the Toucan Guest House apartment was a cellular phone and the police have obtained the numbers which were called and from which calls were placed to London. Among the numbers were those of three television presenters, Ronald Waddell, Clem David and Roger Moore, who were invited by the police to the CID headquarters last week. Of these only Waddell attended. David and Moore said that they had been advised by legal counsel not to accept the invitation of the police as they could very well have interviewed them at their homes or places of work. They said too that they were not obliged to go to the CID if in extending the invitation, the police had not made clear the reasons for the invitation. A fourth television presenter, Basil Bradshaw, who was invited after the initial three, was interviewed by the police and sent away.
Big event They have not said, however, if they knew who his accomplices were to be. Was Andrew Douglas, who was linked with London to the America Street Cambio robbery, one of those to be involved in the "big event?" Lewis, at his press conference said that the police had followed leads involving London to the Caribbean. However, the police have not said what leads on Douglas they had followed and how many of the 14 robberies for which London was wanted, he was implicated in. Douglas, too, is considered dangerous. The police have not said what their orders are in relation to his capture. Questions have been raised about London's body being taken to the Square of the Revolution. Dr Luncheon, had said that it was that agency which gives permission for the use of the square and had informed the police that no permission for its use had been given to the organisers of the funeral. Nevertheless, the police took no action on the matter. Dr Luncheon has said that arrangements were being put in place for better control of the use of the site.
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