By Zoisa Fraser
Magistrate Gordon Gilhuys was released on station bail yesterday afternoon, several hours after he had turned himself in at the Brickdam Police Station with his lawyer for investigations into Thursday night’s shooting of a policeman on Woolford Avenue.
The rank, 33-year-old Mark George of Lot 2033 Humming Bird Street, Festival City is a patient in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Georgetown Hospital on a life support machine. Information reaching this newspaper is that the single gunshot which exited his chest damaged several of his vital organs.
Stabroek News was reliably informed that the magistrate, who was once a policeman, was released sometime between 4:30 and 5:00 yesterday afternoon. He is to return to the Brickdam Police Station on Monday morning to further assist the police with their investigation. When this newspaper arrived at the police station, about ten minutes after Gilhuys had departed, his vehicle, which has at least six bullet holes to the front fender area and the right side, was gone.
A police release issued last evening said that around 11.15 pm a mobile police patrol observed a heavily tinted vehicle, PJJ 6832 parked along Woolford Avenue, Georgetown.
The police ranks stopped and approached the vehicle with a view to making checks, the police said, adding that ranks called on the driver of the vehicle “to turn on the lights of the vehicle and this resulted in a verbal exchange during which it is alleged that the driver discharged rounds at the police hitting Corporal 18352 George in his abdomen”.
According to the release police returned fire hitting the vehicle, but the driver managed to drive away. He subsequently reported to the police at Brickdam Police Station and was found to be Magistrate Gordon Gilhuys, a licensed firearm holder. The magistrate, the release said, alleged that the police had fired upon him and he returned fire. “He refused to give a written statement and to hand over his firearm when demanded of him by a senior officer of the Guyana Police Force. The Magistrate then left the compound leaving his vehicle which was observed to have several bullet holes”.
The release said that Gilhuys returned yesterday accompanied by lawyer Nigel Hughes who handed him over to the police. He was taken into custody and his firearm lodged. The magistrate however has refused to give a written statement, the release said adding that “it has been observed that his firearm was not licensed for the year 2006”.
The release said that he has since been placed on bail pending further enquiries. The amount of the bail was not stated in the release and efforts to ascertain that proved futile.
This newspaper was reliably informed that when the magistrate turned up at the station around 8:30 am yesterday the police informed him that he was being arrested for discharging a loaded firearm after he had lodged his weapon.
Attorney-at-law Hughes on behalf of Gilhuys then moved to the High Court and filed Habeas Corpus proceedings yesterday before Justice Rishi Persaud. The judge after hearing the matter granted a Nisi order for the police to show cause why they were holding Gilhuys.
The matter was then set to be heard today but that has been quashed since he was subsequently released on station bail.
Sources say that Gilhuys has repeatedly denied that he first shot at the police. According to reports, he is claiming that he was acting in self defence and it was during this that George was wounded.
Reports reaching Stabroek News from other sources are that the injured rank and several others were on patrol in the Woolford Avenue area when they noticed a silver Rav 4 parked outside the Stella Maris school and checks revealed that the magistrate and another person were sitting inside. It was alleged that Gilhuys opened fired on the ranks, hitting George in the back. George managed to run a short distance where he collapsed in a weed infested drain outside St. Joseph High School.
Gilhuys is saying that he had returned from an East Coast Demerara location and had stopped on Woolford Avenue to answer a call of nature. Sources said that according to the magistrate when he returned to his vehicle an unknown vehicle approached and a bright light was shone into his Rav 4. He said that the persons behind the beam asked him to exit the vehicle and he replied that he was Magistrate Gilhuys and that he was armed.
Sources said that the magistrate further contended that those behind the light opened fire on him and he fired back, adding that no one identified themselves as the police. Gilhuys also denied the claims that he had a companion in his vehicle.
At the time of the shooting, the ranks were in an unmarked police vehicle but were dressed in navy blue police uniforms. Persons living in proximity to the shooting scene recalled hearing about three single shots followed by a volley.
It is based on this that police officials are accepting the story of the TSU ranks.
Off the bench
A prominent attorney-at-law told Stabroek News yesterday that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and others have to do a lot of detailed investigation before the magistrate could be charged. He nevertheless said that Gilhuys would have to be charged like every other person who commits an alleged criminal act.
The lawyer, who prefers to remain unnamed, said that the magistrate should not be allowed to hold his job since he would now have a criminal matter before the very courts that he sits in.
He opined that Gilhuys should be interdicted from duty.
“I don’t think he should sit on that bench. He should be relieved of that sort of responsibility”, the lawyer opined.
Further the attorney explained that in a case like Gilhuys’, the vehicle and the weapon must be lodged, as they become part of the body of evidence.
Worried
At the Georgetown Hospital yesterday midday, many flocked the waiting area outside the ICU to get a chance to see George. Many were comforting each other.
George underwent an emergency operation shortly after the shooting and was subsequently placed on a life-support machine.
Worried expressions and tear-filled eyes were evident. Several persons told Stabroek News that they are hoping for the best and praying for him to pull though safely.
The man’s cousin Aetha Clarke had told reporters at the hospital about two hours after the shooting, that she received the message that he was shot but did not get a chance to see him.
The young woman said that she had heard that her cousin was shot by Magistrate Gilhuys but she was not able to verify that information. She added that she was clueless as to what led to the incident. Stabroek News was told that the policeman arrived at the medical institution in a conscious state but had a terrible injury to his chest.
George has been a serving member of the force for over five years.
