Police have arrested three villagers for the assault on three Buxton teens on Wednesday at Non Pareil, East Coast of Demerara, which is being blamed on a misunderstanding.
The three young males, who were working with a construction company that is building homes in the area, were also cleared by police of the allegation that they attempted to invade a closed shop, which set off the attack in which they were beaten with cutlasses, spades and sticks. One of the victims suffered chops to his head, foot and hand. Two of them are 16 year-olds, while the other, Lancelot Griffith, is 17-year-old.
“The youths were workers in the area and their actions may have created some misunderstanding on the part of the shop-owner who raised the alarm,” police said, while adding that they are satisfied that the attack was not racially-motivated.
In addition to the arrests, police said that they are reviewing footage captured by a surveillance camera on the premises as part of the investigation. Police, meanwhile, issued an appeal for all communities to exercise “good common sense” and be “more patient and long suffering.”
The shop owner, who asked not to be named, yesterday maintained that the men were trying to force their way in to the Kellman Street business, but police said that she panicked, then later raised an alarm.
When Stabroek News spoke to the proprietrix, she stated that she was in her shop standing at the counter when the four boys entered.
They said nothing to her and they halted midway in their approach, she recalled, before two of them retreated to a side door within the store and proceeded to rock it while ordering “open this door.” The woman said that as a result, she ran to the back and began shouting “thief, thief,” after which she saw a bunch of people approaching and she fainted. She said that she knew nothing of what happened afterwards until she regained consciousness and saw that police from the Vigilance Station were on the scene.
The woman said that the three men in custody are relatives of her husband and that they are innocent. She added that they are sickly men and she pleaded for their release.
However, a police source said there was no robbery, while noting that the storeowners had experienced a robbery recently and as a result, upon spotting the young men in the area an alarm was raised.
In a statement, police said the youths, who were unarmed, entered the shop, where the owner and her niece were at the time. They asked the niece about bicycle parts and they also requested that she open the counter door apparently for them to have a look at the parts. Upon hearing this, police said the shop-owner panicked and ran to the back believing it to be bandits because about two months ago she had experienced an armed robbery.
The police also stated that the woman then experienced a short black-out and upon regaining consciousness she began to shout “thief.” As a result, a number of neighbours responded and confronted the four youths, during which one of them managed to ride away on a bicycle.
The others, the release said, “were attacked by the residents who were armed with cutlasses, spades and sticks.” This, it said, resulted in the teens being assaulted.
The statement said that police responded promptly to the report received and took the three injured young men to the Buxton Health Centre, where they were treated and sent away. They were later taken to the Vigilance Police Station, where they gave statements. They later complained of feeling unwell and were taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital for further medical attention and were treated and sent away.
Eyewitnesses had told Stabroek News that some residents beat the men and pleas for them to be taken to the police station fell on deaf ears.
This newspaper was told that the four teens are masons who have been working in the area for the past 10 days for Novad Investment, a construction company in Buxton. According to a representative from the company, they are currently working on a housing project in the Scheme for a government ministry.
The police confirmed that the victims are employed with a construction company that is building a number of homes in the area under the Ministry of Housing.
One of the group’s supervisors, Richard Parris, related that the young men would normally bring their meals but yesterday they told him their mothers did not prepare a meal for them so they planned to return home for lunch. As a result, he said he gave them permission to go on lunch sometime after midday.
Kaieteur News yesterday reported that on the night following the incident, Buxtonians had blocked the road to protest the attack, but police yesterday refuted the report.
The police also refuted claims made on a television programme aired on CNS TV Channel 6, that members of the Community Policing Group (CPG) were involved in the assault of the three men. Instead, police said, upon their arrival on the scene the CPG members assisted the police in taking the victims for medical attention.
