Slain schoolboy Kelvin Fraser was complying with the order of a policeman at the time that he was shot at close range, according to a witness who was at the scene.
The police also took their time to transport the injured lad to the hospital, the witness, who was in the police vehicle at the time, said.
“All that we could hear is the police tell Kelvin ‘whey you went running so far, bai’ and the last word Kelvin sey was ‘Me’?. The police call he and he jump over a drain and we hear a loud gunshot”, the witness, who spoke on the condition that he not be named, said. The witness told his story to Kelvin’s mother, Sharon Fraser yesterday and the grieving woman is calling on the police to quickly charge the policeman involved. Despite saying that the report would be completed by Wednesday, the police have remained silent on the status of internal investigations into the fatal shooting.
On June 7, Fraser, 16, a fourth form student at the Patentia Secondary School, was fatally shot during what police said was a scuffle with a rank who was attempting to arrest him. Speaking with Stabroek News yesterday the witness denied that there was a scuffle. “If scuffling was going on the other police (in the van) woulda step out the vehicle and part it”, the witness said adding that the two other ranks did not do this. The witness and another person who was in the back of the police pick-up, admitted that he did not see when the shot was fired but said they were able to hear everything and there was no sounds of any scuffle and the shooting took place quickly.
The witness said that on that day he was on the road, outside the Patentia Secondary School compound when he saw the police vehicle coming. He and another youth were standing there and both were in casual clothes. When the pick-up pulled up close to them, an armed rank came to him, slapped him and ordered him into the back, he said. “He point the gun to me friend and tell he don’t run”, the teen recalled. He said he was bundled into the back of the pick-up by the rank who then slapped his friend several times. They were placed to lie on the floor of the vehicle.
In the meantime, two ranks had entered the school and three men in civilian clothes who were there ran away. The witness said that another policeman armed with the shotgun jumped into the back-up and pointed the gun to his face. “I move it back with my right hand and he put it back in front me face and he sey he gon shoot me”, the boy recalled.
The vehicle then drove off very fast with the rank, who the witness named, sitting with one foot in and one out. He said as they drove the same rank said “look one of them dey” and the vehicle slowed down and he jumped off. The vehicle then stopped and they listened to what transpired next, the boy recalled. “All that we could hear is the police tell Kelvin ‘whey you went running so far, bai’ and the last word Kelvin sey was ‘Me’?”, the youth recalled. He said the rank called Kelvin who was on the other side of a drain to come to him. According to the youth, Kelvin then jumped over the drain, going towards the rank and the pick-up and that was when they heard the gunshot. He was adamant that there was no scuffle saying that they would have heard a sound and the two other ranks would have gotten out of the vehicle. He said that Kelvin did not touch the rank and neither did the rank touch him but just shot him. “He didn’t touch nobody. He just shoot”.
Fluttering
He and the other youth were lying in the pick-up at the time and they raised their heads and saw Kelvin “fluttering” in the drain. He recalled that the rank pulled Kelvin out of the drain by his feet, spread his legs and began to search him. “Then he knock the vehicle and sey y’all come out. Come help fetch the boy in the vehicle”.
The police had searched them earlier and found nothing and had then accused them of being thieves, the youth recalled. He said the police told this to a villager who was passing and the resident responded that the police should kill them. “So then I got more scared”. The teen recalled that he lifted Kelvin’s legs while the other youth lifted one shoulder and the rank the other and they placed Kelvin in the vehicle. Kelvin was still alive at that point and he was placed in the middle. The teen said he had only known who Kelvin was about three or four weeks ago. “I just hold on to he foot because it really hurt me because I got to know somebody for a short period of time and to see that person get shoot right in front of me”.
The vehicle left the Third Street, Patentia Housing Scheme spot where Kelvin was shot and proceeded to where two armed ranks with the three other youths were waiting. The teen said that the police placed two of the youths to lie on the road and threatened that the vehicle would run over them. He said that one of the youths told him that the vehicle stopped one foot away from them. They were then ordered into the vehicle and the last youth landed on Kelvin and blood sprayed from his chest. This was when the three other youths learnt that he had been shot.
The youth said that the police then drove to the station and up to that point Kelvin appeared to still be alive. The five youths were ordered out of the vehicle and it left for the hospital. Kelvin was pronounced dead on arrival at the West Demerara Regional Hospital. The ranks did not inform the station sergeant of the shooting, the teen said. He said there were five ranks in the vehicle including one female. The one who shot Kelvin was armed with a “long gun” while two were armed with handguns, he said.
He said he had seen Kelvin going up the stairs of the school earlier and they had hailed each other and that was the last he saw of the 16-year-old until he was shot. The teen, who still attends school, denied that he or the other youths sold drugs or harassed girls at the school. The other youths are not students of the school. When he saw the police coming he did not run away because he knew his rights and was not doing anything wrong, the youth said. “Is just so I get slapped up”.
He however, said it was understandable that persons would want to run away from police. “If you see a man getting slap up, you gon go to get slap up”. He said that that after the search and finding nothing, the police accused them of thieving and then of molesting girls.
“It hurt really bad”, said Sharon after hearing the witness’s story last evening. “My heart just feel like it gon burst”, she said calling on the police to charge the rank. She said that she was unable to get on to the Head of the police Office of Professional Responsibility, Mohamed Jameer, yesterday. The OPR is conducting an investigation and had promised that a report would be available by last Wednesday. “He don’t deserve to be out there. It’s unfair. I want him to be charged as early as possible”, she cried saying that her son had not even responded in any hostile way to the police but was just shot. “I just feel like hitting myself so hard. I wish I was there”, she said.
Kelvin was laid to rest on June 14. A post-mortem examination found that he died of shock and haemorrhage from laceration of the lungs caused by gunshot injuries. The teenager was shot in the left side of his chest at close range and several pellets were retrieved from his body.
His relatives, friends and other citizens have called for justice for him saying that the policeman who shot him should be charged.
