A Linden videographer yesterday testified that while acquiring video clips on July 18, he was shot and injured with pellets used by the police.
Vladimir Glasgow, appearing before the commission inquiring into the July 18 Linden shootings, said that he did not realise his camera was on after he was forced to flee the scene when the police opened fire.
“The officers opened fire on us, so that’s why we started running away from where the police were… I was saving myself so there was no need for shooting. It was chaos out there. I didn’t even realise the camera was on,” Glasgow told the commissioners when asked about the reason why half of the video could not be made out.
According to Glasgow, who said he was on the scene from since 8 am that day, the lawmen initially discharged teargas. “They shoot teargas first before they start shooting pellets of whatever they were shooting. At that point when I start running, they weren’t shooting teargas… when the officers start shooting, the only thing left for me to do was run,” he said.
In giving his evidence, Glasgow said he recorded the incidents of the protest and the shooting on that day. “I was at the Wismar/Mackenzie Bridge…. I made video leading up to the shooting… I was standing approximately 80 feet from the police when I made the video,” the witness explained.
He noted that although he was on the scene from 8 am, he only managed to obtain his camera at 12, from when he began taking shots. Glasgow explained that he did this from the road in the vicinity of the nursery school and the GWI Water Treatment plant.
The video was played and Assistant Superintendent Patrick Todd could be seen with a loudhailer as he led his ranks. He was heard instructing protestors to go home by order of the president and a banner was seen with the message ‘Disperse or we will fire.’
Commissioner Senior Counsel K D Knight asked the witness about the sound of glass breaking but he stated that bottles were not broken. An injured man was also seen in the video and as persons were tending to him, a woman was heard wailing, “This is wha de police doing? Why we fighting each other for we rights?”
Glasgow said the man was one of the dead men and opined that at the time the video was taken, he was already dead. There were clips of him being taken into the hospital in a motionless state. Asked by Attorney Hukumchand, who is representing the Guyana Police Force, whether there were any images captured of police firing any weapon, Glasgow said “I did saw… but not in the footage”.
“There is not one loud explosion that sounds like a gunshot,” Hukumchand added and was told by the witness that a lot of noise was heard.
“Don’t tie up yaself, you know, because no one is trying to tie you up. You hear any gunshot on that thing?” Knight asked, with support from the Chairman of the Commission, Justice Lensley Wolfe, who asked, “Any of that noise sound like gunshot?” After a pause, Commissioner Cecil Kennard told the witness that it is not a difficult question to answer. Glasgow, in response, said, “I think it is a difficult question to answer… as I said, there was a lot of noise.”
Peter Hugh, who is also representing the interest of the police force, asked whether the sound of breaking glass is louder than the sound of gunshot. “I guess so, yes,” the witness responded.
