One year after two suspected bandits, who were wanted for the murder of a 19-year-old man, were shot dead by the Police, a coroner’s inquest into the wanted men’s death commenced today at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
According to a notice published by the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Judicature, Sueanna Lovell, the deceased persons in the matter are Kwase Jupiter and David Smith.
City Magistrate Annette Singh will act as the coroner. A total of 22 witnesses, most of whom are Police ranks, are listed to testify in the proceedings.
An inquest is a judicial inquiry in common law jurisdictions, particularly one held to determine the cause of a person’s death and if anyone is to be held liable.
Jupiter and Smith were shot dead on October 2, 2021, during a shootout with the Police at Cummings Lodge, Greater Georgetown.
Jupiter called “Ding Docker” and Smith, called “Burlyn” were wanted for the September 30, 2021, murder of 19-year-old Joshua Denny, an electrician of Festival City, Georgetown, who was shot dead during a robbery.
According to reports, at the time of the shootout, Police were acting on information received that the suspects, who had eluded Police in Albouystown, Georgetown, on October 1, 2021, were in the Cummings Lodge, Greater Georgetown area.
As ranks closed in on the suspects, there was an exchange of gunfire between the two men and Police officers during which the suspected bandits were fatally shot. Police confirmed that two firearms, along with eight rounds of 9mm ammunition, were recovered from the scene.
During a search in the Albouystown area, cops managed to recover several items, including a haversack, a motorcycle, a licence plate, face masks, a helmet and other motorcycle parts that were used during the robbery.
It was reported that when the Police received information about the suspects’ whereabouts, they swooped down on a location in Albouystown, but went to the wrong house.
It was during that time an aunt of one of the suspects, a businesswoman in the community, hid her nephew and his accomplice in her home until the Police left.
On the day Denny, who was expecting his first child, was killed, eyewitnesses who described the incident as bizarre, said the gunmen bolted with the man’s gold chain after shooting him. The young man was killed moments after leaving home for work at approximately 07:20h.
The man was found by his sister, Felicia Denny, shortly after the incident, lying on the roadway with blood oozing from his chest. She said that her brother called her minutes after he had left home, informing her that he had been shot.
Upon rushing to the scene, she found him in a critical state. This publication had reported that the now dead man had left for work before, but returned home to use the washroom.
It was when he left home for the second time that he was attacked and shot two houses away from where he lived. He was picked up and taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, but died while undergoing emergency surgery.
Meanwhile, in 2019, Jupiter was charged for robbery under arms and the unlawful possession of ammunition. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years in prison. At the time of his demise, he had just been released from prison.
Smith, on the other hand, was arrested and charged in May 2021 for robbery under arms and discharging a loaded firearm.
