As the five suspects in Tuesday’s beating to death of a burglar await their fate, relatives yesterday expressed fear that they will be charged with the capital offence.
“This is not fair. Dem police ain’t tell me nothing. All we hearing is that they will get charged for murder”, an upset Premdat Deokaran said. He is the father of two of the suspects who live at the Lot 360 Good Hope, East Coast Demerara address where the incident took place.
Deokaran told Stabroek News that 48 hours had passed and his children are still in police custody. “How can you do that when they are innocent? The entire village came out (after the alarm was raised)!” he said. The burglar has since been identified as Kurt Mayers of Better Hope.
Deokaran described the police’s action as discrimination and one that clearly shows that criminals have more rights.
Commissioner of Police Henry Greene disclosed to the media shortly after the Force’s Awards Ceremony yesterday that two of the suspects have been pointed out as being directly involved in the beating.
“So far we have one of them who is saying that this man was beaten by two of the suspects”, Greene said.
He explained that police received a call from one of the suspects saying that he had held the man. When ranks turned up at the Good Hope address, Greene said that the man who had a broken leg, arm and other injuries had been tied up. Subsequently the same suspect who made the report along with three others was held.
The Commissioner told reporters that the ranks did find a bag next to the man with jewellery and other items but “all those pieces (of the investigations) we are still putting together”. He added that it is unclear where exactly the man was found but when the ranks arrived, he was in the yard.
During the incident at least three of the suspects – the two brothers, Mahendra and Muneshwar Persaud along with a neighbour Stephen Singh, sustained injuries. They had been hit in the head and were bitten.
When asked about this and the fact that the men were defending themselves, Greene said that their injuries were not serious enough to put them in hospital. Those injured suspects he added were treated and are now back at the police station.
Meanwhile, as residents and relatives continue to argue that the man was caught red-handed, Divisional Commander, Gavin Primo in an invited comment said that citizens cannot take the law into their own hands.
He said that following the incident there have been a lot of “statements floating around”.
“We must have respect for life. We must respect human rights. We cannot take the law into our own hands!”, the Assistant Commissioner said before adding that if the man had indeed committed a crime, the residents should have secured him pending the arrival of the police.
From that point, he said, the law would have taken its course and the man would have been placed before the court.
He said that once the man had been tied up or even had an arm or a leg broken that would have been enough. Primo told this newspaper too, that it would have been impossible for the man to fight five persons alone.
Primo added that investigations into the incident are continuing and to establish the timeline, to determine when the report was received and how long it took ranks to arrive at the scene.
According to the police, around 3:35 am, Mahendra Persaud, 32, of Good Hope reported that he had caught a man who was found stealing from his house.
Ranks responded and upon arrival at the address found Mayers in “a naked condition on the ground with his hands and feet tied and marks of violence about his body.” A bag containing a quantity of jewellery, a cell phone and a torchlight, which Persaud said was found in Mayers’ possession, was handed over to them.
The injured Mayers, who was slipping in and out of consciousness, was taken to the Georgetown Hospital and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit under guard. The injured man managed to tell investigators and hospital officials his name, age (30) and address, before he died.
Mayers sustained severe head injuries and multiple fractures to his body during the incident.Later that day the Persaud brothers, two cousins and Singh were detained at the Vigilance Police Station.
