Axel Williams made 118 calls to Home Affairs Ministry phone contact
-during 12-day period with six murders
Stabroek News
March 15, 2004

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Over a twelve-day period late last year suspected hitman Axel Williams made at least 118 calls to a mobile phone that was used to call an official of the Home Affairs Ministry, extracts of telephone records show.

During that time, between the end of November and the start of December, there were six unexplained murders, one abduction, a weapons find and the skeletal remains of a missing man were unearthed.

Telephone records also log several calls that the ministry official made to a cellular phone that was owned by Williams. Since he was killed in December he has been identified as a participant in many high-profile murders that are still classified as unsolved by the police.

An extract of the records of calls made to Williams' number indicate the ministry official used his home telephone to call Williams twice on November 25. The calls, which each lasted up to one minute, were made at 10.25 am and 11.13 am.

Meanwhile, the records for a mobile that was used to call the official's residence at various periods show Williams had called the owner's number at least 118 times between November 24 and December 6.

On November 24, Williams called the number 11 times between 6.34 pm and 10.31 pm. He made 13 calls to the number the next day between 7.27 am and 1.17 pm. November 26 there were 18 calls to the number between 6.06 pm and 11.20 pm. On November 29 Williams made 20 calls between 9.51 am and 6.24 pm. December 2 there were 40 calls between the period 8.11 am to 8.29 pm. On December 6 there were 12 calls between the period 4.38 pm and 7.44 pm. Stabroek News does not have the records for the entire twelve days.

The longest conversation that Williams had with the owner of the mobile was four minutes, otherwise most of the calls only lasted for one or two minutes at a time.

For that period, ten calls were recorded to the ministry official's home by the owner of the mobile.

Also, during that time there were several unsolved murders that were credited to unknown killers whose only distinguishing trait was their penchant for identifying themselves as policemen.

On November 23, Kwesi Williams of Buxton was shot and killed in the compound of the National Cultural Centre. In the early hours of the following day another man was killed. Williams had escaped his killers only a week earlier, when they went looking for him at his house. He was planning to leave the country after this incident and had been scheduled to travel to Trinidad the day after he was shot.

It was reported that he was picked up from the seawall on the Sunday night by a group of men who forced him into a car and tried to take him to the area behind the Botanical Gardens. Several bodies of the group's victims have since been found there.

Williams managed to escape from the vehicle and he sought refuge in the Cultural Centre compound.

He ran into the dressing room but was ejected by the men who claimed to be policemen. They assaulted him and he tried to run off again but they gave chase and shot him.

In the other incident, Trevor Mansohing was shot dead at the corner of Hill and James Streets, Albouystown at about 1.30 am the following morning. No one saw anything although gunshots were heard.

The next day the skeletal remains of Andre Etienna, a Sophia resident, who had been abducted, was found in the very area where the men had planned to take Williams. There was a bullet hole in his skull.

Three men were killed on the night of Friday November 29. That night, Mark King was shot dead in Sophia, only three days after he was told that he had been marked for death. Two gunmen reportedly dressed in bulletproof vests that bore the insignia of the police visited his home. When King emerged with his hands in the air they shot him. Spent shells and a pair of surgical gloves were recovered from the scene.

Two hours later, taxi-driver Jason Chapman and Orville Gabriel Jnr were shot dead in an ambush in Atlanticville. Chapman and Gabriel, his passenger, were travelling in a Comfort Zone taxi when they were ambushed. Gabriel is believed to have been the target of the attack.

The three murders are still unsolved but were at the time attributed to the phantom squad - men who worked for a drug dealer said to be helping the death squad track down criminals.

December 2 saw the arrest of one person after a bag of high-powered guns and ammunition was found at a house in Newtown. Police made the discovery after they searched a Lamaha Street house, where they found a bag containing two rifles with three magazines and 52 matching rounds of ammunition. A black holster, with belt and magazine pouch were also found by the police, who were at the time looking for a woman in connection with the find. There was never any criminal charge.

On December 3, the decomposed body of Patrick Gunraj was found in the Thomas Lands trench, about a hundred feet from the Albert Street entrance to the National Park. Gunraj, who was one of the men charged over the $50M Anna Regina Bank robbery, was found almost four days after the night he is thought to have disappeared.

The next day Comfort Zone taxi-driver Kwesi Baker was abducted. He was intercepted by a man claiming to be a policeman who forced him into a car. No ransom demand was ever made and he has never been seen since.

His abduction was linked at the time to his association with the taxi service, which had been targeted by unknown gunmen who opened fire on the base and torched two of its vehicles.