Suspect could be charged soon for Crum-Ewing’s murder

Last Updated on Sunday, 19 July 2015, 14:15 by GxMedia

Guyanese police on Sunday said the man arrested in connection with the shooting death of political activist Courtney Crum-Ewing could be charged shortly.

Head of the Criminal Investigations Department, Senior Superintendent Wendell Blanhum told Demerara Waves Online News that the arrest, which marks a “significant development” in the probe, was not as a result of willy-nilly action by police.

“Let me just put some of these speculation to rest. We have a suspect. We have hard evidence which can potentially lead to a prosecution,” Blanhum told reporters.

The Crime Chief said the suspect was not picked up at random off the street, but he “has been fingered previously in at least one execution and also he is a known character to the police.” The suspect has been questioned ever since ballistic tests on a gun pointed investigators in his direction but  Blanhum declined to say what has linked the detainee to the crime.

The suspect is expected to be interviewed again very shortly.

Crum-Ewing was well known in certain circles in Antigua where he had lived and worked for several years.  He was also the owner of a house on that Caribbean island.

Crum-Ewing was gunned down four months ago on March 10 while on a loud hailer on Third Avenue, Diamond New Scheme urging residents to go out and vote for the coalition A Partnership for National Unity+ Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) in the May 11, 2015 general and regional elections.

The former Guyana Defence Force (GDF) officer and former student of Queen’s College had risen to prominence months earlier when he had held almost daily one-man protests outside the Ministry of Legal Affairs and Attorney General’s Chambers.

Crum-Ewing had been angered by utterances of then Attorney General, Anil Nandlall in a recorded telephone conversation with Kaieteur News newspaper reporter Leonard Gildharie.