Former media personality Nerissa Pearson says she was repeatedly pushed and slapped to the face by a recently graduated Cadet Officer from the Guyana Police Force (GPF) yesterday morning and she has reported the matter to the police.
Prior to assaulting Pearson the officer allegedly attempted to run over three female friends with his car and then threatened to shoot one of them.
Pearson was the Disc Jockey at a private party at Leopold and Cross streets, Georgetown. She told Stabroek News that the incident occurred at about 3.45 am. A group of four women, she said, had just exited the party and were standing at the corner of the road when they were attacked by the officer.
The women, Pearson explained, are of a “different sexual orientation” and it was because of this that the officer started to “pick trouble” with the group.
“He decided to pick trouble with one of them and he drove up as if he was going to hit her down…he reversed and set himself in a position to hit her again and he kept doing this. One time the left side mirror of his vehicle hit her left arm,” Pearson said.
There were several other persons in the car with the officer, Pearson recounted, and they called out to him to leave the women alone. Despite these warnings to stop his “teasing” the officer continued his behaviour and an argument subsequently started between him and the woman.
Pearson said that her friend told the officer that if he did not stop trying to hit her with his car then she would “break-up his car”. The officer, according to Pearson, then shouted: “Touch it. Touch it nah. Give me a reason to shoot you right now”.
The man then came out of his car and attempted to involve the woman in a physical confrontation. It was at this point, Pearson said, that she went over and tried to make peace.
“I tried to push her away and push him away too and then he turn and push me so I push him back and he hold me and start slapping me,” Pearson recounted. “After he loose me the guy who was in charge of the party started talking to him and he left.”
Pearson said that she called a taxi to take her to the Brickdam Police Station but before the car could arrive the officer returned alone with the intent to continue the quarrel. However, the host of the party again spoke with the man, Pearson recalled, and she was able to leave for the police station.
The woman said that she has since reported the matter to police and has given them a statement. However, up to late yesterday afternoon Pearson said she had gotten no word about whether the officer had been arrested.
Pearson suffered swelling to the jaw, a black and blue eye and said that she is experiencing some amount of pain. A senior law enforcement official, she said, has since advised her to report the matter to the Office of Professional Responsibility and the Police Complaints Authority.
“I expect better behaviour and far more discipline from a man of his standing…and I hope that he will not get off with this because of who he is,” she said.
