Shoot-out in Lamaha Gardens

The drama began to unfold at about 4 am yesterday when heavy gunfire erupted in the quiet suburb of Lamaha Gardens, just three doors away from the Minister's home. By the break of dawn, two men - one of whom the police later identified as Moore - lay dead on the street. A burgundy Toyota Carina, bearing licence plate PHH 2636 had crashed into a lamp post close by the bodies.

It is believed that one of the gunmen might have been injured and escaped through Plum Park, Sophia - the ward at the back of Lamaha Gardens.

One woman took reporters to her yard, where she displayed a bloodstained shirt, believed to have been dropped by the wounded gunman in his escape bid. The woman said whoever ran through her yard after the shooting stopped to snatch some of her clothes from a line and left the bloodstained shirt behind.

"We had clothes on de line and they put it on and they left this," she said, while pointing to the shirt on the ground in her yard. Her broken picket fence was another mark of the hurried escape bid.

"We hear de shots firing, one after the other...about (4 a.m.). We couldn't come out. People here on they belly lie down, couldn't come out."

Another resident, whose home was caught in the crossfire, barely escaped with his life. He was woken up by the gunshots and dived for cover under his bed. After a while, there was a lull. The police arrived and the man said he felt safe to venture outside.

Just as he stepped out and was speaking to the police on his bridge, more gunfire erupted, sending him face down on the road. The police had reportedly spotted movements in the drain and opened fire.

"When I come out, everything was finished...But it start again (at around 5:30 am). They [the police] tell me lie down [and] I fall down on the road...It [the crossfire] smashed up the windows, the doors and mirror in my house," the elderly man stated.

The police subsequently conducted a search of a building two houses from the scene of the shooting and uncovered a substantial arsenal of arms, ammunition and radios.

Body in the cemetery

Then sometime after 6 am, as investigators were combing the Lamaha Gardens scene, word spread that there was another body in Le Repentir Cemetery. In the burial ground, the police found the body of a young man of mixed race, light in complexion and clad in a pair of blue jeans and a green bulletproof vest under a blue, red and white striped jersey. He has not been identified.

Upon hearing the news, Crime Chief Leon Trim told reporters: "A body was just found in the cemetery with a bulletproof vest and a gunshot wound. It is likely that he escaped from this...There has to be concerns that [the shoot-out] occurred next to the minister's house...I did not see the minister [but] the minister is safe."

Gun battle on the East Coast

At around 7 am, before crime scene investigators could have arrived in the cemetery, the police received word of the Annandale shootings.

When Stabroek News rushed to the East Coast Demerara crime scene, two men - Fraser and Roach - were dead in Roach's green Toyota Sprinter, PHH 7248. Roach was the son of a senior police officer, said to be in charge of the communications unit of the force.

The dead men had gaping holes in their heads and parts of their brains were splattered on the dashboard of the bullet-riddled car.

Fraser, sitting in the front passenger seat, died with his head thrown back and mouth wide open. Roach, who was in the driver's seat, was slumped on Fraser's shoulder. His scalp appeared to have been blown away.

There were 16 bullet holes to the front windshield of Roach's car, eight on the driver's side window quite a number more had shattered the other windows and pierced parts of the car.

Investigators told Stabroek News that the occupants of two cars - PHH 7248 and PHH 5642 - had opened fire on each other while travelling in opposite directions. Roach's car was travelling eastward, and the other car was travelling towards the city.

Ex-cop Solomon shot in head

After Fraser and Roach were killed, a police source said, the occupants of the other car turned around and headed past the two dead men, to the Annandale Market Road, some 200 metres away. Shortly afterwards, Frank Solomon was shot.

Solomon's Toyota Mark II, bearing the name `Serpico' on the front windscreen, was found nose first in a trench on the northern side of the public road.

Eyewitnesses said Solo-mon and a teenager were shot as the gunmen from PHH 5642 tried to swap vehicles. Reportedly wounded and under police guard at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation last night was Candace Lowe, 16, of Joseph Pollydore Street, Lodge. (See other story on page 16.)

"When they done do all this here, they turn back [towards the city]. De soldier past and slow down, look at the car and cut through by that sideline dam and then de [gunmen's] car pull off. De one dat do de shooting spin back here."

The car used by the gunmen was later found abandoned at the head of Agriculture Road, Mon Repos. A "banana" magazine and a single .762 bullet were found inside.

As investigators combed the scene, a taxi driver related: "We hear the noise, the banging of the car and the car (PHH 5642) come down there. As soon as it stop, three men jump out with guns. So we get scared. They see the [fright] on we face, so they say, `All yo doan worry, we is police.' Some bullets did fall and one of them pick it up. A fellow driver was over there, and they went to him to take his car to go. They say they chasing de bandits, Shawn Brown, [but] he say, `Man, I can't go, because I got to work.' They come over to me and they open de door. A short straight hair man... and this tall one, he look like Shawn Brown to me and he say, `Man, lef de man. Leh we ain't go with he.'" Who these men were remains a mystery.