Two men held
Residents of Laing Avenue yesterday berated the police for what they said was indiscriminate firing at a fleeing teen but the Force later said that they were pursuing an armed man who was in his company at the time.
The teen was arrested shortly after the commotion while the armed man escaped but was later handed over to the police by his mother.
According to a release, at around 10:45 am two armed members of the Police Anti-Crime Patrol were on motorcycles in the Laing Avenue/Vlissengen Road area when they observed two men on foot who were acting suspiciously.
As the police ranks approached the men, one of them pulled out a firearm and discharged rounds at the police while running away, the release said, adding that one of the police ranks returned fire but the man managed to escape. The other man was arrested by the police.
Later in the day the man who had managed to escape was taken to the police at the East Ruimveldt Outpost by his mother.
The matter is under investigation, the release added.
Meanwhile the mother of the teen, Claudette Mentore questioned the reason behind the incident saying that her 17-year-old son did nothing wrong.
She recounted that her son who works for a businessman left his Laing Avenue home as is customary yesterday morning. She explained that a friend would usually come and pick him up in the morning but was not sure if this happened yesterday. She said that she was at home when neighbours informed her that police had shot at her fleeing son.
The upset woman said that when she looked out she saw her son running in the direction of their home. According to her, he was running in a circle with the police in hot pursuit.
She recalled she subsequently jumped between her son and the police professing his innocence and calling on the ranks to tell her what wrong he had done. However she said she got no satisfactory answer.
According to her, the teen was grazed on his shoulder by the bullet and a part of his shirt was torn. She recalled hearing many shots.
“I don’t know what is the police motive for dem shooting behind he suh”, she told this newspaper.
Mentore stated that when her son arrived at work, his employers sent him back home and he was on the Front Road when the incident occurred. She stated that from what she had gathered so far, her son was listening to music and may not have heard the officers ask him to take off his backpack to be searched.
She said that her son subsequently removed the earpiece and after realizing what the officers wanted to do he slowly proceeded to remove the haversack from his back.
The woman said that based on what her son said, the lad apparently was moving too slowly and after seeing the policeman resting his hand on his gun, he got nervous and started to run.
“I am trying to establish why they shot at him.”, the woman said.
Last evening she said that her son was moved from the East Ruimveldt Outpost to the Diamond Police Station and the ranks accompanying him had refused to let her go along.
She said that no allegations were made against the child and questioned why the boy was being held adding that he was taken to a doctor for a medical but nothing much was done to his wound.
This newspaper could not ascertain at press time if the other man was still in police custody
Yesterday residents expressed concern over the police actions and several pointed out that the situation could have been handled better.
