Determined efforts by the police resulted in the arrests of six persons who are suspected to have killed Goed Fortuin taxi driver, Teddy Smith on Sunday night and hijacked another car at Cummings Lodge on Monday evening.

Stabroek News was told that the knife-wielding gang has been fingered in a number of carjackings.

Police rounded up the gang at different points in Sophia, Greater Georgetown on Monday night shortly after a 16-year-old accomplice was caught.

Smith, a 35-year-old father of three, was hired by the men on Sunday evening to transport them to an East Coast location. But before the men got to their destination, they stabbed him several times about his body and also chopped him on his neck and face. He was finally dumped from his car at Quamina Street, BV around 9 pm. He subsequently died.

Events leading to the arrests of the men began to unfold around 7.45 pm on Monday when a party of policemen on routine duty observed the men acting suspiciously on the Ogle Airstrip Road. The men had just hired the driver of motor car HA 7772 of Montrose at Cummings Lodge.

A release from the Police Public Relations Office said the hijacked driver disclosed that he was hired by three men at Cummings Lodge to make a pick up at Ogle. The driver said when he got to Ogle a fourth man joined the vehicle. During the journey, he was attacked by the four men who beat him and held him down in the car. The driver observed that a second car, which was later identified as Smith's, pulled up and the driver of that car began beating him also.

The police release noted that the two cars - PGG 1327, belonging to Smith and HA 7772 - were parked close to each other.

While passing, the members of the mobile patrol enquired from the men who were in HA 7772 whether they were okay and they said yes. However, as the policemen were leaving they heard a strange noise coming from the car and stopped to investigate. Five men then exited the cars and ran. The ranks discharged a round and later caught the teenager.

That night, police swooped on the men and rounded them up at various points in Sophia.

Smith's reputed wife, Sonia Garriba told Stabroek News yesterday that her husband would usually go out to work at 6 pm and return in the morning. She said he went out around the same time on Sunday and was working in the vicinity of Demico House. The woman said from reports she received, the alleged killers - all neatly-dressed young men - approached her husband and did not appear to be criminals.

Garriba said from all indications Smith was stabbed several times during the journey before being dumped at BV. She doesn't think robbery was the motive. "These are young guys going about doing things to blame it on other people. My husband had no problem with anyone," Garriba declared.

She said they might have dumped him at BV to give the impression that the deed was committed by persons on the East Coast. Stabroek News was told that the said group of men might have attacked another man at Agricola two weeks ago. That man was not killed.

Smith's body was discovered by residents of the East Coast village shortly after he had cried out for help. Residents of BV told this newspaper that they did not witness the murder but they heard Smith's cries.

According to reports, Smith's burgundy car pulled up on Quamina Street, BV around 9 pm on Sunday. For about ten minutes, no-one came out of the car, but shortly after someone began screaming: "Thief! thief!", a resident recalled. Residents peeped through their windows to see what was happening and spotted Smith leaping from the car. He walked a short distance before collapsing on the street, where he died. The car then sped off in the direction of the city.

Smith, Garriba said, has been working as a taxi driver for over seven years. She told this newspaper that the car he was driving on Sunday evening belongs to a woman in Kitty and he had only begun driving it three months ago.

The man also leaves to mourn his three children, four sisters and his mother Rosie Persaud