Former suspect in ‘Paper Shorts’ murder casts doubt on Police investigation
Former suspect in the shooting death of Ricardo ‘Paper Shorts’ Fagundes, Rondel Bacchus, is adamant that if it were not for his lawyer, he would have been behind bars for a crime he did not commit.
Bacchus made this assertion during an interview with HGP Nightly News’ Reporter, Travis Chase. He was one of the two persons arrested in connection with Fagundes’s murder but was later released.
According to Bacchus - on March 21, 2021- the night Fagundes was gunned down, he was on Waterloo Street working.
He claimed that a wanted bulletin was issued for him, and upon seeing it, he made contact with his lawyer, Damien Da Silva, and informed him that he was heading down to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters at Eve Leary, Georgetown.
“Then afterward, I jumped on the phone again, and I called Bascom. I called him and say watch, a bulletin issued for me, and he come, and he picked me up, and we go in there,” Bacchus said in light of the Guyana Police Force’s claims that it was his attorney who turned him in.
“Now what you mean to tell me as a Crime Chief in this whole entire country, a man can walk off the road and tell you that Tom Jones was a suspect and you going issue a wanted bulletin and you going arrest without doing no groundwork at all?” Bacchus questioned.
When asked why he called Sergeant Dion Bascom to take him to CID, Bacchus replied, “Bascom be coming to my home a very long time. Bascom is a friend with the woman I am in a relationship with.”
He added, “Bascom is very close with her son. Bascom would usually come to this home; I come out of prison and meet Bascom coming to this home – Bascom is no stranger to this home.”
Pressed on why the Police would want to implicate him in the crime, the ex-convict said he could not figure out why but it only leaves him to defend himself by “probable cause.”
“[…] I don’t know this individual, I didn’t kill this individual, and I en taking no rap for this individual. If it wasn’t for Mr. Da Silva, I would have deh in prison for something I didn’t even know about,” Bacchus contended.
He continued, “I saying no, and people still saying yes, it is you. All I saying is no, people saying bai somebody tell we something else. Well, you go ahead with what people tell you.”
Bascom took social media via storm last week after he was released from Police custody after being arrested in connection with a drug bust at a Norton Street, Georgetown residence.
In the Facebook live, which he has since removed, Bascom claimed that it was a conspiracy to kill him and cover up Fagundes’s murder. Not long after, the GPF held a press conference, painting Sergeant Bascom as compromised.
According to the GPF, the allegations by the Sergeant were untrue and malicious while noting that he admitted to his superiors of conspiring with an Essequibo businessman to “go after” Mohamed’s security Mark Richmond.
Following the allegations, a number of persons have called for an international investigation, with Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo being the latest. According to Jagdeo, the Ali-led Administration would not condone illegalities by anyone.
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