Chairman of the Police Complaints Authority, retired Justice Cecil Kennard says that he is yet to receive the post-mortem examination results for Adrian Bishop and as a result he cannot make his recommendations on the matter.
Bishop was shot dead on September 20 by a cop shortly after he had a physical confrontation with his girlfriend who is also a policewoman.
Contacted for an update, Justice Kennard informed this newspaper that he is in possession of the police file which represents the investigation done. The Force’s Office of Profes-sional Responsibility (OPR) recently concluded its investigation and forwarded a file to Justice Kennard for his input. From there the file will be forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
According to Justice Kennard, last week he wrote both the Commis-sioner of Police and the Crime Chief with respect to the post-mortem report which was not in the file that was submitted to him. He told Stabroek News that he also did not receive the ballistics expert’s report.
“I can’t advise that anybody be charged if I don’t have these things”, he stressed.
When this newspaper spoke to Bishop’s mother, Adene about two weeks ago she was adamant that she has no justice to get. She said that she is not confident that the OPR would conduct a proper investigation. She said that since her son was killed, police never visited to tell her anything. She insisted that her son was intentionally shot.
Police had said in a press release a few hours after the shooting that at 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, Albouys-town, 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 an 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 have since dismissed the police’s account as inaccurate saying that Bishop had no weapon, did not put up any resistance and that the policeman pointed the gun at him before pulling the trigger. He sustained a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the Georgetown Hospital.
Weeks before Bishop was killed he had been charged with armed robbery and had been released on cash bail by the court.
