Former murder suspect ‘Smelly’ arrested for supermarket robbery

A year after he was acquitted of double murder, Jason Howard, aka “Smelly”, 29, of Independence Avenue, Albouystown, was arrested on Friday for robbery under arms.
Police said the robbery at gunpoint was carried out on Chinese national Zhenfa, a businessman in Vryheid’s Lust East Coast Demerara (ECD). The incident took place at An Sheng Supermarket in Kuru Kururu, Soesdyke-Linden Highway, at around 21.05 on Friday.

According to the police, the robbery was carried out by three identified men.
Police teams from Timehri Police Station arrived at the scene around 21.40 on Friday. It was noted that Zhenfa was running her supermarket with the help of a few staff and that it was in the process of closing for the day.

Meanwhile, the suspects entered the supermarket and the man with a gun stood guard at the north door, holding everyone at gunpoint.
The other two suspects went behind the cash register and took $500 thousand in cash, $150 thousand in GTT and Digicel phone cards and three bottles of Henessy from the shelf.

Shortly after, some citizens working for the public good went to the aid of the victims.
Seeing this, the suspects managed to escape by running out of the supermarket, ran towards the east and fired a few shots.

Investigations were carried out in the area and one of the suspects, Howard, was arrested. At the time of his arrest he was wearing the same clothes seen in the CCTV footage. The identities of the other two suspects were checked but could not be found. Investigations continue.

In October last year, Howard and two other defendants were acquitted of the murder of elderly rice couple Mohamed Munir and his wife Bibi Jamila, who were burned to death in their home in Good Hope, East Bank Essequibo (EBE). Howard was sentenced to 12 months in prison for robbing a fruit vendor in 2019. He had previously been charged with armed robbery and attempted murder.