Suspected boat used in ‘Smallie’ escape recovered, man arrested

As members of the Joint Services ramp up efforts in the hunt to recapture notorious convicted killer and death row inmate, Mark Royden Williams, the boat suspected to have been used has been recovered and is in possession of investigators.

Also, according to the Guyana Police Force, the person suspected to be manning the boat at the time was arrested and is in custody assisting with the investigations.

Earlier on Saturday, the Guyana Police Force announced a $10 million reward for any information that can lead to his arrest.

Williams, called ‘Smallie’, in a daring daylight ordeal and assisted by men with high-powered weapons, escaped from the Mazaruni Prison on Friday. This is one of the country’s maximum security penitentiaries.

The Police advised that persons with any information can contact them on telephone numbers: 225-6940, 225-8196, 225-2317, 227-1149 or the nearest Police Station.

“All information will be treated with the strictest confidentiality,” the statement noted.

The convicted mass murderer escaped while being escorted back from a visit with the aid of heavily armed accomplices in a speedboat.

The escort party was fired upon with AK-47 automatic rifles by men inside boat alongside the Mazaruni River.

The boat and its occupants, including Williams, proceeded upstream, past Itaballi landing, while Prison guards and Police in support undertook pursuit.

Williams was convicted of murders stemming from the Bartica massacre in 2008, when he, along with other gunmen, ambushed and killed twelve (12) persons, including three (3) policemen. Additionally, he had been sentenced to death in September last year over the killing on January 23rd, 2008, of Guyana Defence Force member Corporal Ivor Williams.

Royden Williams had previously escaped from the Camp Street Prison on July 09, 2017 but was recaptured on October 10, 2017, on the Weldaad Public Road, West Coast Berbice.