Cindy Rose, parent of two of the boys aged 14 and 16 years old, told this newspaper yesterday morning that the boys were being kept at the Turkeyen Police Station. The third teen is her nephew, the woman explained, and the fourth a friend. The boys, according to her, were released on $10,000 station bail each.
However, Rose said that her nephew was hit to the face by an older inmate while in custody. The area around the boy’s eyes, she explained, is swollen.
When the police released the boys yesterday morning, Rose said, the teen complained to his mother about what had happened. Police at Turkeyen, she further reported, were also informed and they gave the boy’s mother a medical form and told her to go the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH).
Vanessa Bernard spent most of yesterday at the medical institution with her 14-year-old son, Rose explained. Bernard, according to her, was asked to return to take the medical to the Sparendaam Police Station. However, the woman was too tired from spending all day at the hospital waiting for her son to be treated and too distressed at the recent passing of her younger son to do so.
On Sunday afternoon Bernard’s 10-year-old son, Christopher Bernard, committed suicide by hanging himself.
The child was reportedly worried and depressed about the fact that his brother had been arrested and that several attempts made to visit the teen had been turned down by police.
Rose, Bernard and the mother of the fourth boy will accompany the teens to the Sparendaam Police Station tomorrow morning.
“They didn’t tell us anything about going to court but I am hoping that this woman [the owner of the Guinness] will agree to settle the matter… our family is going through enough,” Rose said.
Meanwhile, the woman again raised concern about how police treated her and the other mothers over the weekend when they attempted to see their teenage sons.
Last Tuesday, she had explained, the boys reportedly stole the Guinness and the aunt of one of the boys reported the matter to the Sparendaam Police Station.
On Friday afternoon the police arrested the four boys and since then the mothers had made several unsuccessful attempts to see their sons.
“I don’t understand this. Look at how they treated these boys and look at the outcome. I believe that these police need more training about the impact their actions will have on families because clearly they don’t know how to handle this situation,” Rose said.
She said that she and the other mothers intend to take the matter to the Police Complaints Authority and any other group which designated to deal with such incidents.
“Look at how a big man hit my nephew in his face… Suppose something more bad happened to my nephew then what you think the police would say? They woulda come up with some excuse,” she said.
Commander of Police ‘C’ Division, Assistant Commis-sioner Gavin Primo, when questioned about the matter, told Stabroek News that according to the laws of Guyana police can detain a suspect, whether juvenile or adult, for 72 hours for questioning without instituting charges.
Further, when questioned about the allegations being made by the teen’s mothers that they had not been allowed to see the boys, Primo said he was not aware of that and would have to check on it.
