A remand prisoner escaped from court yesterday morning and ran all the way to the Georgetown Ferry Stelling before being hauled off a speedboat by a determined policeman who tracked him down.
Wayne Inniss, 24, of Lamaha Springs, is one of the three dismissed soldiers charged with trafficking in narcotics and jointly for conspiracy to traffic in narcotics. He sustained one gunshot wound to his left shoulder while escaping from three police officers while in Court Nine on the top floor of the Maraj building on Croal Street.
The wound barely slowed him down as he dashed west into Charlotte Street, north onto Republic Avenue, west into the East Coast bus park, south along Water Street and then into the boat at the stelling.
Inniss, Shandy Stephens and Errol Wilburg had appeared in court yesterday in the preliminary inquiry (PI) into the 133 pounds of marijuana found on the GDF flagship on May 14.
Nobody attempted to subdue the fleeing prisoner even though the exhausted policeman continually shouted "Hold he! Hold he! Hold he!" while he galloped through the streets.
A vendor in front of the building said she saw when Inniss, clad in a white vest and khaki jeans, ran through the gate followed shortly by a policeman who fired a shot. Inniss was hit in the shoulder but he continued to run while periodically clutching the wound.
"But when de man running ah whole heap ah people come out, nobody holding he even though the policeman telling dem to hold he."
The woman said the man ran through the crowd and entered the East Coast bus park after which she lost sight of him.
The woman observed that had it not been for the crowd the policeman might have fired another shot.
"Is de people, dem, all ah dem running in de policeman way and deh ain't holding de man," the vendor complained.
Inniss darted behind some minibuses and then headed into the busy Stabroek Market area before deciding to jump into a speedboat.
It was then the policeman who had never lost sight of him nabbed him and led him away.
He was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital at about 2:15 pm in the company of several police officers for an x-ray. He was discharged around 3:45 pm and is now in police custody at the Brickdam lock-ups.
Inniss' attorney, Vic Puran told this newspaper that he was not in court when the man escaped.
He said he had gone to court to represent the men but other cases were down to be heard and as a result he left and attended to other matters. Puran said he had every intention of returning but by the time he did Inniss had already escaped. The attorney could not shed any light on the extent of Inniss' injury but said he would follow up the matter.
Inniss, who was an Able Ratings rank, was court-martialled and dismissed from the Guyana Defence Force (GDF). He was handed over to the police for civil prosecution on July 15. This was two months after the discovery of 133 pounds of marijuana aboard the army's flagship.
Ordinary Ratings Wilburg and Stephens, who were also implicated in the May 14 bust, were both tried summarily, found guilty and reduced in rank before being dishonourably discharged.
Inniss and Stephens were also jointly charged on July 16 with conspiracy to traffic in narcotics. They were all remanded to prison after pleading not guilty.
The PI was being conducted before Senior Magistrate Maxwell Edwards. State counsel Paula Gilford and Simone Bullen are the prosecutors.
The inquiry was set to continue yesterday. At the last hearing on November 19 the proceedings were deferred because of the absence of defence counsel.
The marijuana was found aboard the GDF flagship after the vessel docked in Barbados to participate in the Trade Winds Exercise. Inniss is alleged to have approached Wilburg and Stephens offering them money to ship the narcotics to Barbados.
Inniss, who was Absent Without Leave (AOL) at the time, was allegedly intercepted by the ship's security after he breached port security and boarded the vessel while it was in Barbados. The vessel was later pulled from the exercise.
Last year another prisoner had attempted to escape while in the same building but he broke his leg after jumping off the verandah.