Crime Chief Leslie James says that while allegations of a policewoman being involved with a repeat criminal offender are of concern to him, one cannot be hasty in one’s conclusions but rather should await the outcome of an investigation.
James yesterday responded to reports that the girlfriend who reported that robbery under armed accused Adrian Bishop had assaulted her, was a policewoman. It was shortly after the report was made that Bishop was shot dead by police.
The policewoman is attached to a city police station and the dead man’s relatives have since told this newspaper that the two shared an intimate relationship.
It was Bishop’s mother Adene who first questioned the relationship the two shared during an interview with this newspaper on Sunday. “And I don’t see how a policewoman could be involved with a thief man; why she don’t have any shame?” she had said.
Asked about the reports that the two shared a relationship, James told Stabroek News that while such allegations are of concern to him, at the same time “we can’t jump and touch the roof…We have to investigate first…we have to get confirmation.”
He said that he was unsure if this aspect of the matter is being addressed by the Police’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR). The OPR is currently investigating the shooting.
“I am not sure how it [the relationship the two allegedly shared] is being dealt with,” he said adding that he knows that the OPR is investigation the shooting.
James was also unable to say whether the rank who pulled the trigger is under close arrest.
A post-mortem examination was performed on Bishop’s remains yesterday and the cause of death was given as gunshot wound to the head.
Police had said in a press release a few hours after the shooting which occurred on Saturday that about 20:00 hrs 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 was stated that while being transported to the police station Bishop attempted to relieve and armed policeman of his shotgun and during a struggle a round which was discharged struck him to his neck. Bishop was later pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
Residents who said they witnessed the shooting however gave a different version.
One woman recounted that they were on Hill Street, Albouystown when Bishop and the policewoman started to fight. The policewoman then left and shortly afterwards a bus with about three policemen came and found Bishop leaning up against a wall. The policemen then gun butted him and according to the eyewitness, the policewoman pleaded with her colleagues to desist from hitting him and instead take him to court. Bishop, according to the eyewitness, was then forced into the bus where the assault continued. One rank then cranked his gun and shot Bishop in the neck.
Bishop’s mother has since said that her son was intentionally killed and that she is certain that no justice would come her way.
