Former murder suspect ‘Smelly’ arrested for supermarket robbery

ONE year after he was acquitted of a double murder, 29-year-old Jason Howard, alias “Smelly” of Independence Boulevard, Albouystown, was arrested on Friday for gun theft.
Police said the gun robbery was carried out on Chinese national Zhenfa, a businessman of Vryheid’s Lust East Coast Demerara (ECD). The incident took place at around 9.05pm on Friday at An Sheng supermarket on Kuru Kururu, Soesdyke-Linden highway.

According to the police, the robbery was committed by three recognizable men.
A team of police officers from Timehri police station arrived at the spot around 9.40 pm on Friday. It was noted that Zhenfa had been running his supermarket with the help of several staff members, and was on the verge of closing.

At that point, the suspects entered the supermarket and the man, armed with the gun, held everyone at gunpoint and stood guard at the north door.
The other two suspects went behind the cash register and took $500,000 in cash, $150,000 in GTT and Digicel phone cards and three bottles of Henessy from the shelf.

Shortly afterwards, some public-spirited citizens went to help the victims.
Seeing this, the suspects ran out of the convenience store and made their escape, running east while firing several rounds.

Checks were carried out in the area and one of the suspects, Howard, was arrested. He was wearing the same clothing seen on CCTV footage at the time of his arrest. A check was made to see if there were two other suspects, but none were found. Investigations are underway.

Last October, Howard and his two co-accused were acquitted of the murder of elderly rice farming couple Mohamed Munir and his wife Bibi Jamila, who were burned to death in their home in Good Hope, East Bank Essequibo (EBE). In 2019, Howard was jailed for 12 months for robbing a fruit vendor. He was previously charged with weapons robbery and attempted murder.