The family of the Danielstown, Essequibo Coast man who died on Wednesday after being shot by the police is upset at the way the law enforcers handled the situation and kept them in the dark about his whereabouts.
Leon Alphonso died while being transferred from the Suddie Hospital to the George-town Public Hospital. The police said he had been shot in his foot.
The police had said in a statement on Wednesday that during investigations into a report of damage to property involving the windscreen of a motor vehicle, at about 3:15h, the police went to Danielstown to arrest 39 year old Alphonso who was the alleged perpetrator.
During efforts to arrest him, the statement said that Alphonso attacked the police with a cutlass and a claw bar causing the police to resort to the use of force and he was shot and injured to his left foot. He was taken to the Suddie Hospital but the police in a later press release said that Alphonso was pronounced dead on arrival at the Leonora Cottage Hospital, West Demerara. He was being taken to the GPHC for surgery.
Speaking with Stabroek News yesterday, the dead man’s mother, Yvonne Alphonso said that even though her son was mentally ill, she is not pleased with the way the police conducted themselves. “I realize that he was doing some wrong things and certain times he would get very angry and then attack people if they trouble him but the police was not truthful to us. I came home after 2pm on Wednesday and I heard the siren and so wanted to know what happen. Then somebody came and say that Leon got shot in Hampton Court. The police came and told my husband that my son got shot in his foot because that was the only way they could conquer him,” the woman said.
She related that her husband signed several documents given to him by the police for permission to take Alphonso for a mental evaluation.
“The police never told us that it was critical. They left and later in the night we got a call telling us that he was dead. We couldn’t get to see him. We had already made plans to go see him. We did not even know that they were transferring him to Georgetown. If they had told us the truth we would know what to do. No police told my family about the death of my son. After we started hearing that my son was dead, my husband went to the Anna Regina Police Station (yesterday) morning and then they told him.”
The woman said that the police related to her family that Alphonso was shot below his knee, however, she was told by other persons that her son was shot to his groin.
“How can you shoot somebody below their knee and they die? The police lied to us and I am very displeased. They did not tell us that my son was in a critical condition. I did not get to see my son before he took his last breath. I hope that proper investigations will be conducted by the police because according to what I heard, my son did not assault the pregnant woman. The police told us that he went by the woman and then he took a stick and lash the windscreen of her car causing it to break but according to what people that were there said he did not even touch her. I really hope that this matter will not be swept under the carpet but it will be investigated.”
A businesswoman who lives in the area reported to the police that Alphonso shattered her windscreen after he became enraged then physically assaulted her daughter who is five months pregnant. The pregnant woman was taken to the Suddie Public Hospital where she was admitted.
