More than two weeks after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) recommended that two policemen be charged with shooting Junior Gulliver dead at Strathavon, Cane Grove, Mahaica, the ranks are yet to face court.
Stabroek News was informed that a police file with a recommendation from Chairman of the Police Complaints Autho-rity (PCA) retired Justice Cecil Kennard that a murder charge be instituted against the ranks was delivered to the DPP’s Chambers on October 8th. On October 23rd, the DPP returned the file to the police with advice that the ranks be charged with manslaughter.
It is unclear what has caused the delay in instituting the charges.
Gulliver was shot and killed on July 4th and his family has voiced concern at the length of time that has passed since the shooting, particularly since the location of the ranks implicated was unknown to them.
Police had said in a statement on the shooting that ranks of the Cane Grove Police Station responded to reports that Gulliver, who was reported to be mentally unstable, was threatening a woman with a cutlass at Strathavon.
Police said the ranks who responded were attacked by Gulliver, who was armed with the cutlass, causing them to shoot him to his body. He was subsequently pronounced dead on arrival at the Mahaicony Hospital.
Gulliver’s brother, Kerry Emanuel, has insisted that Gulliver was not mentally unstable. Emanuel also said that the fact that his brother sustained gunshots to his back was a clear sign that he was not attacking ranks.
The police’s Office of Professional Responsibili-ty subsequently launched an investigation into the matter
Justice Kennard, in an invited comment on Wednesday, told Stabroek News that he returned a file to the police late September with his recommendation that two of the ranks be charged with murder. He said that it was his opinion that the shooting was deliberate and this was supported by the statements of four civilian witnesses. However, their account, he noted, contradicted the account of the ranks who alleged that they were being attacked by the deceased. In the circumstances, he said that he felt that the matter would be best left up to a jury and both ranks should be charged with murder.
