A dredge owner was yesterday morning shot and killed by policemen after he reportedly stabbed a rank and assaulted another while resisting arrest at his home.
Angold Bobbington Cox, called Bob, 54, was shot and killed in his 164 ‘A’ Eccles, East Bank Demerara home, some time after 10 am. Police said they had received information from members of the public that Cox was allegedly of unsound mind, while his wife stated that she was trying to get him admitted for psychiatric observation.
In a statement, police said at about 10.30 am, ranks responded to a report of threats at Cowpen Street, Eccles, where vendor Suzette Fraser was being threatened by Cox, who was armed with a knife and a piece of wood. He was allegedly threatening to kill her. According to the statement, during efforts to arrest him, Cox attacked the ranks and lashed Constable 19811 Griffith to his feet and stabbed Constable 19907 Wallace to his left upper arm, which caused the police to resort to the use of force, during which the man was shot. Cox was subsequently taken to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The injured ranks were taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where they received medical attention, the statement said.
A neighbour confirmed that Cox had fired a chop at a police rank who was trying to get his door open.
Cox’s wife, Bibi Naimoon Cox, told this newspaper that she had been trying to get him admitted to hospital for psychiatric observation but his relatives and neighbours disputed the claim that he was of unsound mind.
Cox’s wife said she was supposed to get some papers signed by a judge and the police would have allowed her to take him for observation, as according to her “he had a mental problem”. When asked about the nature of the problem, she said he was always talking about money and the bush and about seeing bats. He claimed she had sent the bats to him.
The woman said she had moved out from their matrimonial home three days before the incident, after Cox had put her out. Cox’s house was ransacked yesterday and Naimoon claimed that it was the police who were responsible. She also said that a gold brooch that belonged to her husband was missing.
Speaking with Stabroek News, the man’s niece Patricia Evans, who along with her sister and nephew witnessed the incident, said she received a call from her uncle, who stated that the “black clothes” police had surrounded his home. The woman travelled to the scene, where she saw the lawmen in his yard. When she enquired from the police what the problem was, they informed her that her uncle was cursing and that he had chased someone with a cutlass. She said at the time it appeared as if Cox had barricaded himself in the house inside by placing furniture behind the door.
According to Evans, the police subsequently kicked down the door and later shot the man. Cox’s body was then pulled down the stairs and one of the policemen placed his hand to his neck to check his pulse and then informed his colleagues that he was dead.
He was then put in the back of one of the police pick-ups and was transported to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre.
‘Never trouble
nobody’
Neighbours said Cox was a peaceful man, “who never trouble nobody” and they opined that he did not deserve the treatment he received from the police. Giving their account, immediate neighbours recalled that when the police had kicked down the man’s door, they heard “de man seh he nah trouble nobody… ‘so wah ayuh come in mi yard fah?’” They then heard gunshots and later saw Cox being dragged down the front steps “naked as he born” by the crotch.
Cox, who, according to his family, had no criminal record, was on Sunday morning arrested by police for playing music too loudly in the neighbourhood. His speakers were taken away. He was subsequently released and summoned to report again at the station on Tuesday.
Of his mental state, a neighbour said that “he de run off one time and police come and took him to the hospital, but they release him and he alright since then.” A friend added that on the night before, he and Cox sat in his house and talked into the night, while he (Cox) held on to his New Testament. “What man of unsound mind gon sit down and gaff like tha?” the friend asked.
Evans also stated that on the day before the incident, when she had visited her uncle, he pleaded for her and the children to stay with him because, “he said the police coming.”
After relatives were given the ‘royal run around’ from the Georgetown Hospital Mortuary to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre and back, they finally found out that his body was taken to the Lyken Funeral Home. However, upon their arrival they were refused permission to view the body as officials there informed that the man’s wife would have to identify him. Upon the wife’s arrival at the funeral home, relatives were still denied the chance to view the body, as checks with the police proved that the wife had already done so at Diamond, which she denied. She was informed by the funeral home officials that a post-mortem examination was set for Wednesday, but if she returned with the police today, her request to view the body would be granted.
Cox has one son, who resides in the interior, and who is in charge of his dredge.
