(Trinidad Express) Robbie Ramcharitar, the man in a wheelchair who was seen in a viral video being slapped and his wheelchair shoved down a busy High Street by two police officers in San Fernando, said yesterday he was hurt and embarrassed by the public beating which has been seen by thousands of people.
Ramcharitar said he did nothing more than to say “I love you” to a woman in blue clothing, who turned out to be a police officer.
Ramcharitar, 46, spoke to the media on the compound of the San Fernando General Hospital where he said he had been “living” since June.
“I don’t like what happened. I got some slap in my face and on my glasses on my left side. How you expect a man to feel? I am embarrassed to the highest degree over what the officers did. My one wish is to die. I just fed up of everything. I too embarrassed to face anybody,” Ramcharitar said.
The video shows a male police officer slapping Ramcharitar three times across his head and face as he sat in a wheelchair, and a policewoman pushing his wheelchair downhill.
Vendors and store employees said the incident occurred last Saturday afternoon on High Street, San Fernando, and was witnessed by several persons who alleged Ramcharitar was spitting and using obscene language and racial slurs to passers-by, and he appeared intoxicated.
Ramcharitar said yesterday he went to the area to purchase gifts for the nurses who had treated him with kindness at the hospital, but did not physically or verbally assault anyone. He said he had $30 each to spend on the gifts.
“Now, I feel bad I can’t give them anything. I never disrespect nobody; I never curse nobody; I never spit on nobody. That is an allegation,” said Ramcharitar.
“The officer, I never disrespect her. I never curse her. I just told her I love her. I tried to make a tackle. And with that, a next officer who is on the papers here (pointing to a newspaper), he pushed me away and it had a big scene, a very big scene”, he said.
Ramcharitar also responded to claims he was faking his disability.
“I fell off a coconut tree in Mayaro when I was 16 years old. It didn’t start to affect me until 30 years after. The doctors said I could do an operation, but it would be three years before I could walk properly again,” he said.
People who have seen the video expressed outrage over the callousness of the police officers and called for action to be taken.
The matter has been placed in the hands of the Professional Standards Bureau (PSB) of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.