The three policemen implicated in the shooting death of 17-year-old Shaquille Grant are to be charged with murder and according to Crime Chief Seelall Persaud they could be arraigned in court as early as today.
Grant, of Lot 72 ‘BB’ Eccles, East Bank Demerara, was fatally shot on September 11, at Third Street, Agricola, where police had said ranks came under fire, while residents said that they executed the teen.
Persaud told Stabroek News yesterday that earlier in the morning (yesterday), the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) recommended that murder charges be instituted against the ranks.
Asked when the ranks were likely to appear in court, he said that the file on the matter was at the time with the acting Commissioner of Police, Leroy Brumell. It is more than likely they would be charged and taken to court today, he, however, added.
Over the past few weeks there had been several reports that two of the cops fingered in the shooting had fled the country. Senior police officials had been quoted in the press giving conflicting information on the whereabouts of the ranks.
Brumell was reported to have confirmed the disappearance of the ranks but when contacted Persaud had told this newspaper that he was unaware that the police force was looking for any of its members or that any member was missing.
Quizzed about the issue again yesterday, Persaud said that two of the ranks were not missing but absent. Asked if they can be physically accounted for, he said that he was unable to say.
Stabroek News was told that the recommendation of the charges against the ranks was based on all the statements contained in the file and on the fact that all three ranks admitted firing at the teen.
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday during a protest action outside the Supreme Court Law Library, where the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the July 18 Linden
protestor shootings is being held, Grant’s mother, Shonett Adams, said that she welcomed the charges but was disappointed that it took so long to be done.
Adams said that from the inception it was clear that the police unjustly killed her child, while noting that the murder charge comes almost a month after he was killed.
“Yes, I expected them to be charged with murder,” the woman said, while reiterating that several persons witnessed the incident and based on their accounts police had no real reason for shooting the teen.
“They moving too slow (on the investigation),” she added, while sounding her disagreement with the force being allowed to investigate its own members.
According to Adams, who maintained that her son was not a criminal, a member of the Guyana Police Force has yet to come to her with information on the investigation.
Romel Bollers, 19, was also shot at the location where Grant was shot. The police force said that ranks opened fire after they were first fired upon and that a gun was later recovered. In a brief statement after the shooting, police force spokesman Ivelaw Whittaker had said that ranks on a mobile police patrol came under fire from a group of men at Caesar Street, Agricola. He said the ranks returned fire, fatally wounding Grant and injuring Bollers. “A .38 Smith and Wesson revolver was recovered by the police,” the statement had said.
Stabroek News was told that police launched an operation in the community after receiving information that a gang was planning to commit a crime. Despite the police’s account that when the ranks arrived at Third Street, someone opened fire, resulting in an exchange that left Grant dead, eyewitnesses said one officer was seen standing over the teen as he fired bullets into his body.
Based on a post-mortem examination, Grant was shot a total of three times to the head, chest and buttocks.
