By Kenesha Fraser
Forty-seven-year-old Deon Gherow of Onderneeming Sand Pit, who was allegedly beaten by the police, is now fearful for his life, since, according to him, he was told by the men who beat him: “If I allow this to go far I will have to be walking and watching back.”
Speaking with Stabroek News, Gherow, called ‘Coolie’ said he was assaulted on August 1 of this year at around 10 am. “I was standing on the Affiance Public Road waiting for transportation to go home to my house at Onderneeming when a jeep pull up and two man jump out,” he said.
The man who is a taxi driver said he did not work on that day but had gone to Affiance on other business. “The two man who said that they are police had guns and then they snatch me by my pants’ waist and throw me in the vehicle. Me didn’t recognise none of them but when they throw me in the vehicle I see a man name [name given] who is the manager for a business [name given] at Anna Regina. The two man just start beating me up and telling me to ‘talk!’ ‘talk!’ and I ask them what I must talk concerning and that is when them stick me up with gun and start beating me bad with they hands.”
Gherow recalled that the businessman asked him where he lived and instructed the driver of the vehicle to go to the location. “All the time as the vehicle moving, they keep beating me. All the way to my house they beat me and tell me that I must talk and when I ask them talk about wah, they ain’t answer me up to now,” he said.
“The businessman just went telling them ‘y’all beat he.’ My cap and shades fall off and my face was covered with blood and the whole side swell up big… When them reach to my house, before me come out of the vehicle one of the man tell me to wipe my face and put on everything before I come out and because I refuse to do it they start beating me again. I get frighten and I wipe me face and put on my cap and shades. They gone in my house and start searching but they ain’t find nothing.”
Gherow said his elderly mother lives in the house behind his and before the men exited his home to take him back into the waiting vehicle, he called her.
She came out on her verandah, and “I gone and I hold on to her and they start choking me in front my mommy and I had to loose her because she old and if I didn’t loose she, she woulda fall down. After that them throw me back in the vehicle and keep beating me straight back to Regina.”
Gherow said he was taken to the CID office at the Anna Regina Police Station where he was ordered to sit on a low bench. “The two police, the driver of the vehicle and [the manager] carry me in the back room of the CID office and put me on a low bench with a laptop in front a me and they keep asking me if I know the persons on the laptop and when I say no, one of then kick me in my left side and break my ribs. I keep begging them not to beat me no more but they still keep beating me and I was in plenty pain. Then they ask me if I know a boy that I de pick up about two or three days before and I tell them no and then they bring the boy in the room. I de pick up the boy at Suddie from a restaurant and I carry him to a hotel in Regina. I could remember that he had a plastic bag with two food box in he hand. I tell them that me ain’t know the boy and the boy tell them the same thing and then they stop beating me and they put me on the bench to sit outside.
“[The manager] come where they put me to sit down and start telling me that he sorry that they beat me up and how is the wrong man they get,” he said. The man added that he gave a statement to a rank before he was taken and placed in the lockups. “When I was in the lockups I was in a lot of pain. After I couldn’t bear the pain, I tell the police and they tell me that no vehicle ain’t deh but when they get a vehicle they gon carry me to the hospital. About 25 minutes later they carry me to the Suddie Hospital and when the doctor do x-ray, 3 of my ribs break. They had me in hand cuffs all the time and the doctor said that if I de move too much my ribs woulda bore my lungs. “I get admit in the hospital then [the businessman] come and say ‘Coolie, I sorry I beat you and I gon give you $100,000 but I ain’t accept it. He keep forcing me to accept the money but I tell him no and he tell me that in 5 minutes the handcuffs will be removed from me and so said so done. The man them that was beating me come and remove the handcuff and they gone. Then the same day a next man [name given] come and offer me more money and I didn’t accept the money either.”
Gherow said while he had his cell phone when the incident occurred, he did not have the opportunity to make any calls. However, his mother, who witnessed part of the assault, alerted other family members and they went to the hospital and found him.
“The second night when I went in the hospital [the businessman and the other man mentioned] come late in the night to offer me money and I refuse it again and then I start seeing a whole set of strange man walking pass and peeping me and because I was afraid the nurses had to take me in a room at the back,” he said.
After spending one week in Suddie Public Hospital, Gherow said, he had to seek further medical attention for two weeks at the Woodlands Hospital. “I was ordered by the doctor to take bed rest while I was staying by relatives in Georgetown and then my brother made a report to Brickdam Police Station. I never see the two men that beat me up before in my life and according to what I hear they are police who does work in Georgetown. Right now I’m afraid for my life. I’m scared that they will come and kill me and I really want justice to be served. The police were put to serve citizens but they are not doing that. I punish a lot because of these injuries. I can’t get to work and right now I am still in pain. All I hear is that some things were stolen from [the businessman] and the people who thief it went in me car. I have evidence to show that I was brutalised and now I am fearful for my life.”
Family members who are disgusted with the matter said that after no investigations into the incident were being done by the police on the Essequibo Coast, letters were written to local daily newspapers so that Gherow’s plight could be made public.
Following the publication of the letter, the police said that the matter is being investigated by the Office of Professional Respon-sibility in Georgetown.
Gherow and his relatives are hoping that a thorough investigation can be conducted by the police.
