-told to keep details on down-low
The other youth who was in the police pick-up when 16-year-old Kelvin Fraser was fatally shot by a policeman on June 7 said he heard no sounds of a scuffle, while another teen held during the incident said a policeman warned him to omit certain things from his statement if he wanted to be released.
The witness, who was reluctant to speak because he said the police warned him not to say anything about the shooting, briefly recounted what had happened that day. He said he was outside the Patentia Secondary School compound and was going in when the police pulled up. He told this newspaper that one rank slapped him about five times, searched him and placed him in the vehicle. He said he was placed to lie inside while the pick-up moved off. He recounted hearing the policeman tell Fraser not to run and then a gunshot. “When I raise me head I see he in the gutter,” the youth, who did not want his name to be published, said. He said he heard no sounds of a scuffle and the incident occurred quickly. He said at the station, the police asked whether he believed in God and told him they did not want him to say anything about the shooting.
On June 7, Kelvin, 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. However, one youth who was present at the scene has since said that Kelvin was complying with the order of the policeman, when he was shot at close range and he heard no sounds of scuffling. A post-mortem examination found that Kelvin 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.
The police had said ranks were responding to a report that a group of males were harassing girls at the school. Another youth who was one of the five held by the police that day told Stabroek News that he was slapped by the police several times. He admitted that he and three other youths were hanging out at the school in casual clothes and they ran when students shouted that police were coming. He said he saw Kelvin running too but not in the same direction.
He and another youth were caught at First Street, Patentia Housing Scheme and there he recalled that a rank, who he named, slapped him several times and forced them to lie on the ground. “The man sey I is a drugs dealer, he looking for me long and all them kind of thing,” he recounted. He said that when the police vehicle returned, the ranks threatened that they would run over his head, and only stopped when the wheels were about a foot away from his head.
He said they were placed in the vehicle and taken to the Wales Police Station while Kelvin was taken to the hospital but when they had arrived at the station, the 16-year-old had appeared to be dead already.
At the station, the rank who hit him told him to put nothing of what occurred on his statement, he said. “He talk and sey doan put none of the thing what I do you on the statement. Don’t put nothing on the statement and I’ll loose you,” the youth recalled. He said he did as he was told because he wanted to be released. He named the rank who told him to omit the details and said that the rank was not the one who shot Fraser. The rank also told them that once they were released, they should not tell anyone what occurred and “just keep it on the down-low.” The youths gave their statements, which were transcribed by the police and then read over to them, separately. They were released later that evening, he recounted.
When the incident occurred Kelvin was not wearing his uniform and after observing the police hitting the other youths, he decided to run away, his girlfriend had told this newspaper.
The police did an internal investigation and sent the file to the Police Complaints Authority last week although it was incomplete. Yesterday, Kelvin’s mother, Sharon Fraser said she was told the file has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. She said she was told that before the week is done, there would be developments.
The slain teen’s relatives, friends and other citizens have called for justice for him saying that the policeman who shot him should be charged. Two protests were held at the Wales Police Station and in Georgetown to demand that justice be done.
Kelvin was laid to rest on June 14.
