– admits protestors were wrong to block bridge
APNU Parliamentarian Vanessa Kissoon yesterday testified that Assistant Superintendent Walter Stanton shot in her direction on July 18 at Linden, challenging his claims that he did not use his weapon.
However, Kissoon, who appeared before the Commission of Inquiry into the July 18 protestor shootings, faced a barrage of questions over her failure to identify Stanton in her written statement, although she knew him.
“I’m suggesting to you that Officer Stanton did not fire a gun,” attorney Hukumchand, who is representing the Guyana Police Force, told Kissoon yesterday.
“And I am saying to you that he did. He did, and he did fire in my direction and I can identify him when I see him again. He did fire a shot!” Kissoon maintained.
She said that Stanton fired at her while he was running from the Wismar/Mackenzie Bridge as persons accused him of shooting another individual.
“I heard someone shouting ‘A man geh shoot, a man geh shoot’… while running going towards the bridge after I hear a man get shot. I saw a police officer running towards me, coming from the bridge area, coming towards me… in fact, he ran past me and I was confused. Persons were saying that is the police that shot the man and when he heard that, that police officer turned around—because he was already past me—he turned around and aimed and fired a shot in my direction. I stood there, I was shocked, confused, didn’t know what to do and all I said to myself was this is it,” she said yesterday.
When asked by legal counsel for the commission Ganesh Hira what type of firearm Stanton was using, Kissoon said she knew nothing about weapons but it was a “little gun”.
Stanton had testified on October 4 that he was in the vicinity of the Mackenzie-Wismar Bridge, which protesters had occupied when the shootings occurred. He said he was armed with a concealed 9 mm pistol and was standing behind the Tactical Service Unit (TSU) ranks, who were facing the large crowd at the bridge while a smaller group of persons were also behind the riot squad.
Audio
COI Hearing – 15/10/12 – Vanessa Kissoon MP
“I heard the crowd behind the unit shouting, ‘Kill the officer that is standing alone…’ they were talking about me and they start advancing and pelting bottles and bricks at me,” Stanton had said.
Making reference to this statement, Commissioner K D Knight urged Kissoon to be honest and asked her whether it was possible that after gaining knowledge of Stanton’s evidence of being chased away that she had associated him with running. The witness responded in the negative.
“You give your statement… and you said you knew Commander Stanton from the district. Why didn’t you name him in your statement?” Hukumchand asked Kissoon.
She said that at the time she had given her statement to attorney Nigel Hughes, she thought that she had mentioned Stanton’s name. “I didn’t know I didn’t mention his name but I did know who it was,” she added.
Hukumchand remained unconvinced. “You didn’t even mention that he was the commander of Linden?” he asked her.
“I didn’t mention that… the line of questioning that I was asked, I just gave the statement… and based on the other persons around, persons were shouting that a police just shot a man and he was running and persons said ‘look him running, that is the police that shot the man’. I know exactly what I am saying sir and I know exactly what I saw,” Kissoon said.
Knight too questioned the witness about whether there was any particular reason she did not identify Stanton in her statement.
“No sir,” she said.
“It was important for you to be able to identify the policeman who did the act, shooting at you? You described what you did, you described occupation and you described how you felt. Was that policeman Stanton?” he asked, receiving an affirmative response. Again asked about not naming Stanton, Kissoon said at the time of giving her statement she did not find it important.
“Ms Kissoon, you are speaking the truth, are you not?” Knight inquired.
“Yes, I am,” the witness said.
Also questioning the omission of Stanton’s name was Chairman of the Commission Justice Lensley Wolfe, who asked if Hughes, in taking the statement, had not asked for the name.
Kissoon said she could not recall.
Under questioning by Hira, Kissoon said she had known Stanton before July 18 and that he was dressed in all over khaki with a black headpiece on that day.
Wrong
Meanwhile, Knight inquired whether in Kissoon’s opinion the protestors did anything wrong on July 18. “No sir, not in my opinion,” she said, before being asked whether blocking the bridge was permissible. She responded in the negative. Asked if she would now change her initial answer, Kissoon said “I don’t think that blocking the bridge and hindering vehicular access is within the law.” She finally agreed when asked again by Knight if it was wrong.
The witness had said she had seen police officers firing shots towards the bridge as well. “As I was running and I turn to head back to the bridge I saw the police officers continuing walking, firing shots. At that time, I heard gunshots… there were many, I can’t give account. They were firing towards the bridge… there were probably about eight or more policemen, some were dressed in this dark blue outfit and a few in khaki,” she recounted, adding that it was as she was running she had the encounter with Stanton.
“Well, when I realized that I wasn’t shot, I took a deep breath and I said, ‘Thank you Jesus’ and he [Stanton] ran towards a police car that was parked somewhere around the bus shed area,” she stated.
She explained that subsequent to this, she turned around and found four young men carrying another, later identified as Allan Lewis.
“I turned around and there were four young men standing just behind me, two holding the hands and two holding the legs of a person who was shot. I didn’t know the individual at the time. There was a male nurse who said, ‘can you hold the head of the person who was shot and lean it, so the blood can continue draining’. I did that and he said, ‘y’all take him to the hospital.’ We started running with the young man when the ambulance came up. We took him to the hospital… by time the doctors can get to him he was already dead. I later learnt that the guy that got shot was Mr Allan Wade Lewis,” she recalled.
Kissoon said she stayed at the hospital until around 11 pm. “I thought it was my duty as the regional representative. I stayed at the hospital to see the persons who came in. Shortly after we took Lewis in, several other persons came in. There was a man who was shot. He was bleeding profusely over a basin. There was a young man shot in the stomach area, two of them, one was Hector Solomon Junior; a woman came in [and] was shot to the back. Another guy came in he was shot to the nose. There was another guy lying next to Mr Solomon, he was also shot… when all these persons came in, then some young men came in. I think it was Ron [Somerset] who came in before Shemroy [Bouyea]. but when I saw those young men, in my opinion, I’m not a doctor, but in my opinion, they were dead because they weren’t breathing or anything,” she recounted.
Among other things, the commission is mandated to inquire into and report on the circumstances surrounding the shooting to death of three Linden men, Allan Lewis, Ron Somerset, and Shemroy Bouyea and the injury of several others at the Mackenzie-Wismar Bridge on July 18, during a protest over the increase in electricity tariffs.
