The man’s attorney, Basil Williams, told Stabroek News yesterday that there have been no new developments in the matter and his client was still in police custody. Williams was unable to comment further at the time.
Last Thursday police announced that they were seeking well-known personalities Archie Poole and Bostwick as they could “assist” with a then undisclosed investigation. Crime Chief Seelall Persaud on Saturday said that police were holding Bostwick in connection with the fire at the Ministry of Health. Police, according to him, are also interested in Poole in relation to the same investigation. Up to press time last night Poole had not been located.
On Saturday Bostwick was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) with stab wounds to his chest. Nicola Bostwick, the man’s wife, told Stabroek News that police are suggesting that Bostwick broke a glass window and stabbed himself in the chest. A check at the hospital, she’d said, revealed that her husband sustained a few stab wounds in the chest area, and that one particularly deep wound took five stitches. She said the whole story was baffling, but reiterated that she would first need to speak with her husband. How Bostwick was able to wound himself in the presence of the police has not been explained thus far.
The woman was adamant that Bostwick is being targeted by the authorities. She said that he was at home on the night of the inferno at the ministry and that “he knew nothing about that”. According to her, he was made aware of what had happened while on the way to teach a class. She said that her husband decided to turn himself over to the police after the statement was issued about him and Poole. She said that he went in on Friday morning around 10 am with his attorney and was promptly detained.
The circumstances surrounding Bostwick’s wounding remain unclear. If reports are true and Bostwick had broken a glass window ranks stationed at Brickdam would have been able to hear the noise and intervene. When this view was put to Commissioner of Police Henry Greene yesterday afternoon he refused to comment and directed this newspaper to the force’s Public Relations Department.
“I believe the PR department issued a statement on that…I am not going to get involved. Speak to the PR department,” Greene said yesterday.
However, repeated efforts made to contact Ivelaw Whittaker, the police Public Relations Officer, were futile. Besides the press statement, in which police said they wanted Bostwick and Poole for questioning, and the statements made by Crime Chief Persaud police have said nothing else about the matter.
