-cops acted within power, says Crime Chief
As most of the country celebrated Christmas, the family of slain suspected robber Hemchand Gopaul was still in mourning, while insisting that police shot the wrong man.
Gopaul, 18, of Rose Hall, Corentyne Berbice, was accused of being a perpetrator in an armed robbery in Hampshire, Corentyne. He was fatally shot by police hours after, last Friday morning. The man was laid to rest on Thursday and his family, who are Hindus, will be in mourning for the next year.
The Gopaul family had no holiday cheer after being devastated by the loss. Police in a press statement last Friday said he was one of three men who robbed a family at Hampshire Village, Corentyne, a charge that his family still denies. Police had taken the other two men into custody but they have since been released on station bail.
In a press statement, police said that at about 5 pm last Saturday attorney Khemraj Ramjattan went to the Albion Police Station, where he requested to see the two men who were in custody at the station. Ramjattan, according to police, “spoke to the two men who informed him in the presence of the police that the police had not assaulted or ill-treated them in any way since their arrest. It had been alleged that one of the men was beaten and the other shot by the police.”
His clients, Ramjattan told Stabroek News on Thursday afternoon, are “not connected” to the Hampshire robbery. The attorney contends that the deceased and the other two accused men were transporting a load of scrap iron when they were spotted by police who began firing shots at them.
The attorney, however, admitted that his clients were not beaten by police as previous allegations had suggested. “I am going to ensure that the police hand over a full report on the incident to me,” Ramjattan stated.
Ramjattan, who is also representing Gopaul’s relatives, said the man is innocent and was “murdered” by police. The attorney contended that one of the two surviving men had been hiding in a trench close to the dam where Gopaul’s body lay after he was fatally shot. It was that man, Ramjattan said, who reported hearing two shots.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud, responding to the attorney’s statements, told this newspaper that an allegation was made that the two men, previously in police custody for the robbery, were tied to a tree and beaten by police. Persaud described such allegations as the “reckless statements made by some professionals.”
Further, reacting to the attorney’s claim that police “murdered” Gopaul, the Crime Chief stated that police were “in conduct of an investigation and in so doing acted within their power which certain laws make provisions for.” In all cases where there is a fatality, Persaud said, the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) is duty bound to investigate that matter and a full report is then sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for advice.
A post-mortem conducted on Gopaul’s body, the Crime Chief told Stabroek News, revealed that there were three wounds on his body. The pathologist, Persaud said, reported that it is possible two of the wounds were caused by the same bullet. However, regardless of whether Gopaul took two or three bullets, the Crime Chief said, the post mortem showed that the bullets which caused the wounds were all fired from “intermediate” distances. None of the shots, the Crime Chief stressed, were fired at close range.
Police said late last Friday evening the robbery occurred at about 1.30 that morning at Hampshire Village, Corentyne, where Maria Mootoo, 45, her sister Savitri Mootoo, 41, their mother Latchmini Narinesammy, 68, and a brother were at home. Three men, armed with a firearm and a cutlass, broke a window and entered the home. They held the two sisters at gunpoint and took away a quantity of jewellery and $85,000. The trio discharged a round as they escaped, police said.
Acting on information received, the police were able to pursue the robbers and came “under fire at the Rose Hall Cemetery. Police pursued the men and again came under gunfire at Port Mourant. They returned fire, fatally wounding Gopaul. One of Gopaul’s accomplices was subsequently arrested in the Port Mourant district; he remained in police custody up to press time assisting police with investigations, police said. Eight 9mm rounds were found in Gopaul’s pocket, according to police, who say he has been “positively identified as one of the three” robbers. A 9mm warhead was recovered by police at the scene of the robbery.
Despite these statements by the police, Gopaul’s relatives are not convinced he was involved in committing the crime. His father, Vishnu Gopaul, has explained that his son’s left hand was of limited use to him. “Listen my son is innocent… I believe that de police realise dem shoot ah innocent man and is then dem put de bullets in he pocket… how me son going to load gun when he lef’ hand don’t work good… is only he thumb and de finger next to that does work… how he going to load a gun?” the distressed father asked.
Vishnu Gopaul said that his son was shot dead on a dam a short distance away from his home. The scrap iron which Gopaul had been transporting, his father alleged, was dumped in the trench by police. “I telling you true true story here. Me son didn’t fetching de iron but he de driving de donkey cart and is fetch he and he two friend dem been fetching scrap iron… he innocent. We been and pick up all de scrap iron that dem [police] throw in de trench.”
The shooting, according to Vishnu, commenced at about 4 that morning and didn’t end until about 5.30am. The police, he alleged, fired more than 20 shots. The man said he heard the last two shots from his house and he believes those were the ones which killed his son. Vishnu also claims that one of the two men previously in police custody for the robbery witnessed his son’s shooting. “After de bullets start fly [name of the man] jump in de trench and then hide at de side,” Vishnu said, “He hear de last two bullets jus’ like me and he see everything,” Vishnu said.
Stabroek News, despite numerous efforts, was unable to contact the alleged witness for a comment. “We going to be mourning for de Christmas,” Vishnu said, “But we ain’t going to let de matter drop so… we going to see it to de end… we want justice.”