In a letter to Stabroek News yesterday (see full text on page 6), the police force said “... the force wishes to make it pellucidly clear that no policeman was involved in that shooting”.

The letter by the police force came in response to a story in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek where relatives expressed the view that members of the force were involved in the deaths of the two Farm, East Bank Essequibo men. The two men received fatal gunshot wounds while in a minibus. The relatives contended that the shooting might have been as a result of recent disputes that Lennox Baker had with two police officers.

In its letter yesterday, the police force said that the shooting is under investigation. On Friday and Saturday, Stabroek News had sought information from the police on the shooting. When contacted on Saturday, police spokesperson, Inspector John Sauers offered a “no comment” on the issue but said the matter was still under investigation.

There are conflicting reports on how the brothers died. A police statement on Saturday said that the men were killed after the bus they were in stopped at Vergenoegen, East Bank Essequibo at around 1.45 am for a passenger and an “unidentifiable” man came from behind the bus and discharged two rounds hitting both brothers. Lennox Baker was said to have died on the spot while Ron Baker was said to have succumbed around 5 am at the Georgetown Public Hospital.

Other reports this newspaper has received say that two men were involved in the shooting. The reports say that there were three passengers in the bus at the time of the shooting. As one passenger came out, one assailant approached from the driver’s side and another from the conductor’s side and they fired simultaneously. One passenger was grazed by a bullet while the other two fled believing that a robbery was in progress.

Edna Baker, the mother of the two men, said that three weeks ago Lennox Baker had been threatened by a policeman and the confrontation resulted in the policeman pulling his weapon on Lennox Baker who then made a report to the police divisional commander. The mother said there was an incident with another policeman and reports were also made about this.

Meanwhile, Edna Baker told this newspaper last evening that post-mortem examinations would be performed today on both bodies even though Lennox’s corpse could not be located up to late last evening. Edna said Lennox’s body was removed from the Best, West Demerara Hospital sometime between Saturday night and yesterday morning but up to now no one knows where the body was taken. According to Edna, the family has since made checks at the Lyken Funeral Parlour and at the Georgetown Hospital and officials at both institutions have disclaimed knowledge about the body.