Reuters AlertNet Lite - Guyana kills feared bandit accused of mass murder

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Guyana kills feared bandit accused of mass murder

29 Aug 2008 00:02:26 GMT
Source: Reuters

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Guyanese soldiers and police on Thursday shot and killed Rondell "Fineman" Rawlins, the South American country's most wanted man, accused of three massacres this year that left more than 30 dead.

Police commissioner Henry Greene said security forces shot dead three men at a jungle hideaway close to the capital Georgetown, including Rawlins and another man accused of murdering a cabinet minister in his home several years ago.

Rawlins was on the run after police blamed his gang for the killing in two raids of at least 23 people, including sleeping women and children in a village and small town along the country's Atlantic coast earlier this year.

The gang leader was also accused of a gruesome attack in June after eight charred corpses were found at a remote diamond mining camp. Greene said investigators who went to the mining camp found skeletal remains including human skulls.

The killings shocked normally quiet Guyana, a small English speaking country that borders Venezuela and Brazil.

The government offered a 50 million Guyanese dollar ($246,000) reward for information leading to Rawlins' capture.

Jermaine 'Skinny' Charles, a member of the Rawlins gang also killed on Thursday, broke out of a police station in June of this year while awaiting trial for the killing of a government minister and several members of his family at the minister's home in eastern Guyana.

Greene said the gang leaders died on Thursday during an assault on their camp near an army ammunition dump and the country's international airport about 20 miles from Georgetown. (Reporting by Sharief Khan; editing by Todd Eastham)

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