Escapee Douglas shot dead
- body reportedly found wrapped in white sheet Editorial
Guyana Chronicle
August 27, 2002

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AFTER being on the run for a little more than six months and having managed to elude an intensive manhunt spearheaded by the Police Force and the Army, one of the five notorious February 23 prison escapees, Peter Andrew Douglas, has been shot dead.

The circumstances of his death were unclear and Police said they were trying to determine how he was shot.
Police, in a brief press release, said a body identified as that of Andrew Douglas, was found in a car at Farm, East Bank Demerara, at about 06:00 hrs yesterday.

Police said the licence plate of the car PEE 2929 was false. The registered number of the car is PHH 6034 and the vehicle was stolen on August 18 from a private citizen on Barr Street, Kitty, Georgetown.

THE spot where the body was found in the car.
"Gunshot wounds were found on the body. We are in the process of ascertaining how he came about the wounds", the Police release said.

A source told the Chronicle that the body of the dreadlocked Douglas was found in the back seat of the car wrapped in a white sheet.

There were three bullet wounds in the region of his chest, the source said.
The source said too that about eight other vehicle licence plates were discovered under the front seat of the car.

The body, which was removed from the scene by Police, was taken to the Lyken Funeral Parlour in Georgetown.

Relatives of Douglas and the father of fellow prison escapee, Dale Moore, turned up at the parlour to identify the body, the source added.

Reports said that Douglas was apparently seriously wounded in Dury Lane, Campbellville, Georgetown, at about 02:00 hrs during a confrontation between a Police patrol and several persons in a car.

HIJACKED: the car in which the body was found.
It appeared that his fugitive colleagues sped away with him in the car and turned off the main East Bank Demerara road on to the lonely road at Farm where they "finished" him off.

He and members of the gang reportedly bought items at a bar in the area and were returning to the car when they were spotted by the patrol which opened fire.

Persons nearby said they heard gunshots and Police sirens.

Douglas' death followed the slaying of Vibert Inniss, Deputy Head of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), on Saturday morning as he made a routine stop to buy newspapers from a vendor in Buxton, East Coast Demerara.

His assailants in a white car, one of whom was said to be dreadlocked, were apparently trailing him as he left his home.

When he stopped at the newspaper stand, the men left their car, pumped a volley of shots into Inniss, killing him on the spot, before escaping in their vehicle.

Inniss at the time of his death was the driving force behind the incomplete investigations into the discovery, in May this year, of 1,871 kilogrammes of compressed cannabis sativa (marijuana) the equivalent of 4,116 pounds.

The drug, which was found behind a false wall in a container, would have fetched a street value of more than $60M, officials said.

On February 23 last, Douglas and four other dangerous criminals - Dale Moore, Shawn Brown, Mark Fraser and Troy Dick - staged a daring daylight escape from the Georgetown Prisons, killing a male Prison Officer and seriously injuring another officer in the well-executed jailbreak.

Since their escape, the five have been linked to a series of daring and violent robberies in which several persons were killed and wounded.

Police said they have also been involved in a series of car-jackings, kidnapping and internal terrorism.

After his escape, Douglas appeared on a video tape, which was broadcast on some TV stations, in which he was dressed in Army camouflage clothes and was holding an AK-47 rifle.

Among other things, he claimed to be a "freedom fighter".

At the time of his escape from the Georgetown Prison, Douglas was on remand after being charged with a series of murders and robberies under arms.

Douglas, also known as `Tod Dexter' and `Fisherman', was committed to be tried in the High Court for several murders, including those of Jermine Brower, Vishnu Narine, Brian Nelson, Ewart Hutson and Mubarak Khan.

He appeared before then Acting Chief Magistrate Paul Fung-A-Fat, on March 11, 2000, one week after he was extradited from neighbouring Suriname.

Police said he was also implicated in a raid on Didco Trading Company Limited and a brazen early morning attack on the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) headquarters in Georgetown.

There was widespread controversy around May 9 when two television stations aired the video footage of Douglas, with both stations claiming they had no role in the production of the tape and initially offering no explanation of how they had received the material.

A reward of $10M is still being offered by the Police for the recapturing of the prison escapees.