-- two others escape from hijacked car

THE Self Loading Rifle found in the hijacked car.

One Policeman was slightly wounded in the shootout on the main road at Turkeyen, East Coast Demerara, and reports said one of the escaped men may have been shot in a leg.

Pindleton, 23, of 10 Durban Street, Lodge, Georgetown, was a prime suspect in the shooting to death of Police Constable Adrian London on a city street earlier this month.

Lowe, an ex-Policeman, operated a mini-bus service on the lower East Coast, reports said.

THE handgun used by one of the gunmen yesterday.

Pindleton and his accomplices were in the car which was reported to have been hijacked at Annandale, another East Coast village.

On seeing the Police, the men opened fire and the Police responded, witnesses said.

Sources said the men were being trailed by the Police in a bus from Buxton and roadblocks were set up along the East Coast highway and the former railway embankment road.

According to sources, as the men fired at the Policemen, one of them emerged from the car, shooting at the busload of cops.

A SECTION of the crowd at the scene of the shootout.

At this point, according to the sources, the same Policeman decided that it was "do or die", and he emerged from his vehicle, aiming sustained fire at the gunmen.

He reportedly fired some forty-three rounds, killing both Pindleton and Lowe.

As traffic backed up and drivers and others tried to keep out of the line of fire during the shootout, two of the men in the car managed to escape.

Police recovered a Self Loading Rifle (SLR), a 9mm handgun, a quantity of ammunition and other items in the vehicle the men were in.

Pindleton and Lowe were wearing several pieces of gold jewellery on their necks, fingers and ears.

THE Police vehicle after the shootout.

A number of Policemen were engaged in the hunt for the men in the Beharry compound, when it was believed that they were holding the maid of the house hostage.

Ranks surrounded the compound from all ends and security personnel at the residence of the American Ambassador, located just behind the Beharry house, were on high alert.

Other ranks also staked out in front of the Beharry house, prepared for combat.

However, according to Police Commissioner, Mr. Floyd McDonald, a search of the Beharry compound and the residence proved empty and he said there was no evidence to suggest that the men were in the compound.

The articles discovered by Police in the car from which four men fired at the Police. (Police photo)

Efforts to get a comment from the Beharry's proved futile.

Beharry Deputy Chief of Security, Mr. Steve Warrick, said that he had briefed the Beharry Directors on the incident and they were the ones to give any information.

Asked for comment, Mr. Anand Beharry, one of the directors, said he had not been briefed.

Mr. Rickford Cozier of West Ruimveldt, Georgetown, said he was on his way to Ogle when he was caught up in the crossfire.

He said he was in his mini-bus GDD 189 in front of the gunmen's vehicle when the shooting began.

Mr. Rickford Cozier was caught in the crossfire between the Police and the gunmen.

Cozier, 40, was visibly shaken and said that all he heard were sudden gunshots before he was ordered to hit the ground.

The East Coast highway in the vicinity of the shootout was soon in sheer chaos, as persons flocked to the area to see the bodies of Pindleton and Lowe.

Two Policemen and a teenager were brutally shot dead when a gang went on a rampage after midnight last Sunday at Rose Hall town, Berbice.

Police Constables Ramphal Pardat and Outar Kissoon, and Essequibo Balram Khandai, 18, were killed by the group of heavily armed men following a number of robberies and an attack on the Rose Hall Police outpost.

Some 12 men reportedly landed by boat on the coast in the area and fled by the same means after the two-hour rampage.