The three policemen who were on the mobile patrol from which shots were fired on a car during a chase, hitting bystander Dameon Belgrave and killing him, have been placed under close arrest as investigations continue, a police press release said yesterday.
The police’s action has been condemned by the People’s Parliament, which called it extreme recklessness, overuse of force and disregard for public safety and by the Guyana Human Rights Association, which said it was another disgraceful example of police indiscipline.
Relatives of Belgrave are seeking justice for his death. They said the police behaved in a reckless manner. Belgrave, 21, of Middle Street, Pouderoyen, West Bank Demerara, sustained one gunshot wound under his left arm in the region of his heart. He would have celebrated his 22nd birthday yesterday.
The police press release said ranks on a mobile police patrol at, ‘B’ Field Sophia, challenged the occupants of motor car, PGG 3506, after it was observed that the driver was attempting to evade the patrol.
A chase then ensued around the streets of Georgetown and the car eventually stopped in Hadfield Street, and five men exited. During efforts to arrest the men rounds were discharged and it was later learnt that Belgrave, who was standing on the roadway in the vicinity of the White Castle Fish Shop, was shot to his left side. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Hospital. Three of the men who had been in the car were arrested and are in police custody.
Belgrave’s family said he and a group of friends were standing near a car at the fish shop having a pre-birthday drink when a police patrol passed in pursuit of a car. Shots were fired and Belgrave was hit. His family also said that no one from the police force has made contact with them about the incident.
His family stated that the police are shooting innocent persons and that lately they are in the news only for killing people. This, they said, has them seeking answers as to the role of the police force. They also called for the policemen involved in the killing to be charged with murder since this is the only way they would feel their loved one’s life was not wasted. One relative said, “I am tired of the police hurting and killing people and nothing coming out of it… They killed that child in Agricola and they said how they escape.”
Another relative said “the police are trained to kill so they don’t have good police and bad police… Tell me, what they gon say this time?’’ They also stated that the police are incompetent and are not trained properly to carry out their jobs.
Delay
Mother of the dead teen, Donna Sulker, said her son had returned home a few weeks before since he was in Lethem doing some census work. He would have returned to Lethem shortly after his birthday. The woman said that her last moments with her son were on Friday when he cooked for the family and told her his friends were taking him out for his birthday.
Belgrave left his home that afternoon and never returned. His mother stated that some time after he left she became a bit worried that he had not called her since it was normal for him to call her at regular intervals while he is out. After not hearing from him, she said, she sent a text to his phone around 9.20 pm but there was no response. She said, “so I said I gone give he lil time cause weh he deh he mussy aint hear… By the time I send the second text, the phone ring and the person was crying. They tell me Dameon just got shot.”
Sulker said she went to the station where she met one of the boys who were in the car the police were chasing and he related to her that the police shot her son. She said one of her son’s friends, who was with him at the time, told her that he heard two shots and they ran. She added “the friend said when he look he ain’t see he getting up so he thought it was joke.
But when he look again he saw he head under a motorbike exhaust.” The friend then realized that this was something serious and returned to his friend aid only to find that he was badly injured.
The woman also said that her son’s other friend, who was also with him, told her that after he was shot the police delayed for a while before they took him to the hospital. She said the friend told her that he was placed in and taken out of the police patrol vehicle three times before he was taken to the hospital. She continued, “they de just focusing on catching the men so they had he deh lie down long. When they put he in de last time, the friend she, he see he head twist.”
Belgrave, who was the eldest of four children, was described as a quiet and jolly person by his family. He leaves to mourn his mother and siblings.
Extreme recklessness
Meanwhile, the People’s Parliament said in a press release that it was heavy hearted over Belgrave’s death and expressed condolences to his family and friends. The release stated that there was extreme recklessness, overuse of force and disregard for public safety shown by the police in this situation.
It also criticized the structure that creates and encourages such behaviour and said it hoped the police force would not try to evade accountability for the young man’s death.
The GHRA, meantime, pointed out that it is a well-known fact that the fish shop is a popular hang-out on a Friday evening with crowds spilling across both lanes of Hadfield Street and down the median between them.
The release said it was “inconceivable that any sane person, let alone supposedly trained officers would be so inept as to open fire in such a crowded area”. It noted too that the police had no idea who they were shooting at.
However, even if the men in the vehicle were known and wanted hardened criminals there was no justification for firing at them in a crowded street, GHRA stated. It questioned whether there are any routine protocols whereby police suspicions of a fleeing vehicle could be relayed by radio or phone rather than the wild bounty-hunter tactics employed on Friday night.
The organization said the prompt arrest of the three officers involved—who according to reports were armed with two AK- 47s and one 9 mm pistol—was commendable but inadequate to generate any confidence in Guyanese who were still mindful of the Agricola execution of another young man by policemen earlier this month. The release also mentioned the death in May of Valerie Gordon, the mother of nine, who died from heart failure after hearing police shooting close to her home in Sophia.
These incidents are too frequent, the GHRA said, to be explained as the work of rotten apples. “The police force is systemically incapable of policing the communities in a civilized manner. Ill-trained police carrying high-powered weapon is a recipe for deadly mistakes. This is particularly the case when the police view themselves as primarily engaged in a war on crime rather than protection of the communities,” the GHRA said.
It noted that following the Agricola incident, it had recommended that “the use of live ammunition be banned except by specially trained units under effective control of competent officers.”
Friday night’s incident reinforces the conclusion that “root-and-branch reform of the GPF away from its militia origins is fundamental to creating a modern community-oriented police service,” the release said.
