A 35-year-old burglary suspect was yesterday afternoon shot in the lower back by a plainclothes policeman during what police described as “an armed confrontation”, but residents of Prince William Street Plaisance, East Coast Demerara, are claiming that the man was not armed and could have been arrested.

A release from the police said Dexter Bevney of Prince William Street, Plaisance was shot and “injured during an armed confrontation with a plainclothes policeman who was armed with his service revolver.”

According to the release, following investigations into a report of burglary committed on Wednesday night on the home of Mark Carter of Atlantic Gardens, the police, acting on information received, went to a house at Prince William Street, Plaisance, where some of the stolen household articles and curtains were recovered.

Bevney, who was recently released from prison after serving a sentence for burglary, was arrested.

“In an effort to escape, [he] attacked the plainclothes policeman with a knife which caused him to resort to the use of force and discharged a round from his service firearm which struck Bevney to his lower back,” the release said. He was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital for medical treatment.

But when Stabroek News visited the area residents claimed that the man, who occupies a shack in what is described as the “long yard”, was shot for no reason. They said the police could have arrested the man, who did not resist, but instead shot him.

However, one resident said that the man had to be pulled out of a trench on Graham Street by the police after he was shot. It is believed that the man may have been running from the police, since the “long yard” connects Prince William and Graham streets, when he was shot.