The police are yet to hand over the bullhorn and cellular phone that murdered political activist Courtney Crum-Ewing had in his possession at the time of his death and his mother says she finds this puzzling as her son “did not murder anyone, he get murdered.”
Donna Harcourt yesterday spoke of her frustration at not being able to secure the two items owned by her son. Speaking to Stabroek News, she recounted that she visited the Ruimveldt Police Station as recently as Saturday and met with an officer and requested the items. The police officer she spoke to said that he was calling someone about the bullhorn but she ended up leaving without it. In relation to the phone, Harcourt said the officer said that they are still investigating and need the phone to aid in that process.
“I would like to have the phone and the bullhorn. I need the phone, I need the bullhorn, this is more than a want, I need them. This is not he kill people, people kill he so I would like to have the phone and the bullhorn,” the woman told Stabroek News yesterday.
She also said that the fact that the police are taking such a lengthy time with the phone makes her fearful about the result of their ongoing investigation. In relation to this, she said that the officer stated that the police had released the two men who were in custody but they have since held two others.
Crum-Ewing, a 40-year-old father of three, was heard on a bullhorn on March 10th around 8 pm shortly before he was shot five times to his body, including a close range shot to the back of his head. At the time, he was walking around the Diamond New Housing Scheme on the East Bank of Demerara urging voters not to stay at home when elections are held on May 11 but to take to the polls to oust the incumbent PPP/C government.
Police initially said a car with four men drove up and discharged shots at him and then drove off. The lawmen subsequently detained two men and a car.
Prior to his campaign to urge people to vote, Crum-Ewing protested for several weeks last year for Attorney-General Anil Nandlall to quit over the contents of a phone conversation he had with a reporter of Kaieteur News.
Yesterday, Harcourt called for Guyanese “to see things for what it is and they must vote for change.” This was the very message her son was blaring from his bullhorn on the fateful night when he was gunned down. “We the citizen cannot continue like this, with these unsolved murders and every other thing, we cannot be afraid all the time,” she stressed.
She commented that even a sibling of the man is now expressing fear which was something alien before the murder of Crum-Ewing.
“And still now I can’t believe it [that Courtney was killed], I am still in shock, I am trying to get it over,” she emphasised.
The woman also spoke about an interview Nandlall had with a local newscast during which he said he did not know her son but that he had a right to protest since Guyana is a democratic country.
However, the woman said that Nandlall would have seen her son from time to time because of the weeks he spent standing in front of his office. She also pointed out that he would have had a closed-circuit video feed in his office as cameras monitored the building and its environs.
Harcourt recalled that Crum-Ewing had said that an employee from the ministry with whom he attended school, had gone to the Middle Street location where he left items he used to protest and removed them. When contacted, the man stated that “he boss” had sent him for the items and that they had been handed over to the head of security, the woman recalled.
Not to be daunted, Crum-Ewing made new posters and continued his protest. It was only after the May 11th date for general elections was announced that he took a decision to take his activism to another level and decided to galvanise citizens to come out and vote.
Meantime, Harcourt said that she is conducting her own investigation and she is making progress which she would release to the media shortly. She also said she has no confidence in the police investigation as she believes that some of the senior officers are compromised with relatives of theirs working closely with the ruling PPP/C.
