The Police Complaints Authority (PCA) said it is prepared to investigate the controversial shooting to death of a Riverview fisherman by a policeman on Monday morning, even as relatives of the dead accuse the police of being dishonest.
Felix Da Silva, 27, of Riverview, Ruimveldt was shot three times by a policeman, who had gone to his home on Monday to investigate a reported burglary. The police said in a statement that Da Silva had attacked the policeman with a cutlass injuring him.
Yesterday, Stabroek News returned to Riverview to find a small vocal group planning its next move to protest the killing of the father of four. “It will not go down like other cases this is murder,” Michelle Russel the man’s wife said.
She told Stabroek News that she was taken aback when she read the police version of the story, which she said was littered with untruths. “Is a sheer lie dem have there… to think they killed my husband and turn back and lying on he. That is cruel,” Russel said tearfully.
Other relatives expressed similar sentiments, describing the police statement as a cover-up.
“That is all they fit to do lie plenty… that story they give is not true,” Russel declared.
Chairman of the PCA, former chancellor of the judiciary, Cecil Kennard, said his department would no doubt investigate the matter before making a recommendation to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Da Silva’s relatives are expected to visit the PCA today to lodge a formal complaint.
“It is expected that the police would investigate this matter before forwarding the file to me because the man did not die from natural causes,” Kennard said.
Police had said in a statement that while conducting investigations into a report of burglary committed on a grocery shop and beer garden at Riverview on Monday morning, there was an armed confrontation between Da Silva and the police resulting in him being fatally shot. The statement said investigations revealed that around 4.30 am on Monday, Edward Farley, who operates a grocery shop and beer garden at Riverview, was awakened by noise in the building.
On checking, he saw two men in the shop who he recognized to be Da Silva called ‘Scar Chest’ and another man, both of Riverview and known to Farley. The police said both men managed to escape by running into the Riverview area.
The matter was subsequently reported to the police at the Ruimveldt Police Station and Constable 18141 McRae, who was unarmed, went with Farley to the home of Da Silva who handed over some of the foodstuff allegedly stolen from the shop. Da Silva was told that he would have to go to the police station whereupon he picked up a cutlass that was nearby and chopped Farley to the back of his head.
The police rank intervened and he, too, was chopped on his left hand by Da Silva who then ran away, the police statement said.
It added that armed police ranks responded after public-spirited persons telephoned the Ruimveldt and Brickdam police stations in relation to what had occurred. Da Silva was later found in another yard at Riverview and upon seeing the police, it was alleged that he attacked one of them with the cutlass and the rank then used his firearm to fend off his attacker.
The police said despite repeated calls for him to desist, Da Silva continued firing chops at the rank forcing the police to discharge rounds at him, which hit him in his chest. Da Silva was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Farley was admitted to the hospital and Constable Mc Rae treated and sent away, the police statement said.
However, Da Silva’s relatives who gave a totally different story to the police said that the lawmen were misleading the public in an attempt to cover-up the matter. Russel said that at 4.30 am on Monday, her husband was lying next to her in his bed and did not hand over any foodstuff to the police when they visited her home.
“Those are all lies, everyone knows… my husband went home nine o’clock and he did not leave the house,” Russell said. The woman recalled that her husband had been drinking near to Farley’s bar on Sunday evening but he subsequently left and stopped at a friend en route to his home. Russel insisted that she assisted her husband in getting home, as he was drunk and could not make it on his own. That was around 9 pm on Sunday.
The woman said some time around 6 am on Monday, she heard someone knocking at their door and when she checked it was Farley armed with a cutlass and a policeman dressed in civilian clothing. Once inside their modest dwelling, Russel alleged, Farley broadsided her husband who was sleeping at the time. “Wheh the things you thief from my shop,” Russel quoted Farley as saying. The two men had a scuffle in the presence of the policeman, during which time Da Silva, arming himself with a cutlass, slashed Farley across his back. Farley retaliated by cuffing Da Silva in his face before slashing him with his cutlass to one of his ears. Russel said the police might have been hurt during the confrontation, but she insisted that her husband did not take aim at him.
Following this, Russell said her husband fled the house running some 60 metres from his house before he was brought down with a gunshot to his leg. He immediately surrendered, she said, holding his hands aloft, but the policeman went closer to him and shot him two more times to his head and chest.
Russell told Stabroek News yesterday shortly after this the policeman received a telephone call and the person on the other end of the line apparently asked him if he was finished, he replied in the affirmative. “Everything looks like they plan to kill he,” the woman said.
Police have routinely shot and killed suspects over the years under controversial circumstances.
Kennard told Stabroek News yesterday that only recently three files dealing with police killings were forwarded to his office for investigation. In addition to the three cases, Kennard said, there were still others he was looking at.
