The Guyana Police Force is saying that 25-year-old Adrian Bishop, who was shot and killed on Saturday night, was killed as he attempted to relieve a policeman of his weapon but the young’s man mother said eyewitnesses have debunked this claim and she accuses the police of murdering her son.
“They kill my son, why they couldn’t arrest he and let the matter go to court? But I know I would not get any justice I would leave it in God hand,” a heavily pregnant mother Adene told this newspaper yesterday.
Bishop was killed outside a party on Hill Street, Albouystown, on Saturday night after a policewoman with whom he had a relationship reported he had assaulted her. Persons who claimed to have witnessed the incident alleged that the man was shot by a policeman who was beating his head with a gun.
However, the police in a statement said that it was during a struggle between the now dead man and a policeman who was armed that he made efforts to relieve the rank of the weapon during which a round was discharged and he was struck in the neck.
According to the police at about 20:00h on Saturday night ranks of a mobile police patrol responded to a report received from a policewoman that a suspect who was wanted for robbery under arms had assaulted her.
“The police, accompanied by the reporter, went to Hill Street, Albouystown, where the suspect Adrian Bishop of Garnett Street, Kitty, was pointed out to them. Adrian Bishop was informed of the allegation against him and was arrested and placed into the police vehicle,” the release said.
It said after the man was shot he was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The man’s mother yesterday said as far as she knows her son was not wanted by the police since not only was he recently released on bail after being placed before the court but also he was only last Friday released from police custody. Bishop was held for five days in police custody at different police stations but was released without charge.
Saying that her son was no saint, a grieving Adene said that the last time she saw him was last week Friday hours after he had been released from prison, and it was on Saturday evening as she was about to celebrate her first wedding anniversary she received the news of his death.
Disclosing what she was told by one of her eldest son’s female acquaintances, the woman said that her son and the policewoman, whom she has never met, had a misunderstanding and that he may have assaulted her. He said the young woman said she was in a party and Bishop and the policewoman were outside and she saw when the policewoman dialled a number on her cellular phone.
“She said that three policeman pull up in a pit bull bus and a woman a dem hold he by he pants waist and he walk with them and went in the bus,” the mother of eight related.
While in the bus the young man was beaten with guns by two of the policemen and it was while one of them was hitting him the gun went off.
“He throw down he gun and hold he head and walk away and the next one hold me son head and look down at he see that he dead…” the woman said.
She questioned why the man was not taken to the station since he had not resisted arrest and if he had assaulted the policewoman then let her get a medical and let the court decide on his guilt or innocence.
According to the woman the police constable was one of three friends with whom her son reportedly had intimate relations and she believes that the woman was determined to see her son dead. She queried why the policewoman did not approach one of the several police officers who are on patrol in Albousytown instead of contacting specific officers.
“And I don’t see how a policewoman could be involved with a thief man; why she don’t have any shame?” the woman asked yesterday.
Adene said while she grieves for her son and knows he was killed innocently she would not attempt to see justice done because she does not feel she would receive any, pointing to the fact that many mothers have gone through similar experiences and are still awaiting justice.
“I would not get any justice because he had a character. I know he was no saint but he was still loving to me and his siblings,” the woman stated.
The mother and two of her other children asked why the police treated Bishop like a dog as they all claimed that the policeman planned to kill the young man.
Adene said that she was a strict disciplinarian and she would administer corporal punishment whenever her son went astray as he grew up.
“But I don’t know is how he end up like that, I would talk to him. Only Friday night when he went here and I cleaning a injury he had on he foot when the police beat, I begging he to stop and to stay away from bad company and he promise me that he would…” she said with a faraway look on her face.
She recalled that she had only recently seen him on the news when he was given bail for robbery and a carjacking incident and had secretly hoped that he would remain in prison if he had committed the crime. But his bail was paid but she does not known by whom. He would not have approached her for help because she had indicated that he should not call her when he is in trouble with the law as he was embarrassing her, and she is not condoning his actions.
She now plans to allow God to take charge and is only waiting for her son’s body to be handed over by the police and for her to give him his last rites.
