The police are being investigated for allegedly beating an Anna Regina, Essequibo Coast resident, who has since been hospitalised.
Police Commander of ‘G’ Division Senior Superintendent Kevin Adonis told Stabroek News that the alleged attack, which miner Maxwell Boston says was perpetrated by several police officers attached to the Anna Regina Police Station, is being investigated.
“I want justice. This has to stop. Somebody has to put a stop to things like this,” Boston said, while speaking from his hospital bed at the Suddie Public Hospital, where he was admitted as a patient due to the severity of the injuries he sustained.
Boston said he was initially attacked on Sunday between 7pm and 8pm at Capoey Lake.
“On Sunday, it had a sporting event in the lake, so I was there. I was talking to a young lady facing her when two persons hold me from behind and pull me. One was a police officer in blue clothes and the other one had on civilian clothes,” he recounted.
He said the officer in plain clothes punched him and he soon found himself restrained by two others and the man kept pounding on him.
“I was able to wriggle out and I start fighting back,” he said, while noting that other officers, whom he recognised although they were not dressed in their police uniforms, all joined in beating him. “Up to now I don’t know why they did what they did to me. The place had plenty people, so all of them saw plus some persons even video the whole thing on their phones. The police drag off my vest and gold chain and one of them, who I know very well, handcuff me,” Boston added.
He said he was dragged “like a dog” to the police vehicle, where officers once more began pounding on him while telling him to get into the vehicle.
“They eventually handcuff me to the rail of the police vehicle and start beating me again. One of them kick me and say that he would shoot me and he take out his .38, so I saw the weapon,” he added.
Boston recalled that he questioned the officers about their attack on him but he was not given any response.
“They put me in the vehicle and when we reach the Capoey Road head I threatened to jump out the vehicle because I didn’t know what they were going to do to me,” he said.
He added that his uncle, who had witnessed the attack on him, had accompanied him and advised him against jumping.
“When we reach the Anna Regina Police Station compound, I was taken out from the vehicle and two of them hold my hand while the other one start beating me with a baton and that was in the compound. They didn’t take me in the station as yet and a female police officer [name provided] came out and tell them that they can’t be beating me like that but they didn’t listen. They just keep beating me,” he further said.
According to Boston, he fainted and when he regained consciousness he was inside the station. He said he was asked for his personal belongings, which he handed over to them and signed for.
“They take me in a cell but before we go into the cell one of them come wanting to hit me again but I put up a fight and then another officer, who I know [name provided], point his firearm at my head and said he would shoot me. While all this was happening, three other prisoners were in the cell so they see what happen,” he added.
Boston said later in the night, he started to experience pains and couldn’t move his left hand because he had been hit on the elbow. “I start crying out for pain and finally they said they would take me to the hospital,” he recalled. “They just bring me to the hospital and leave me here. I am still in severe pain and I don’t feel safe at the hospital. I want to go home. I feel as if they could just come back and collect me to do what they want,” he added.Boston said that the brutality he suffered came after he reported a previous incident in which his brother-in-law was allegedly assaulted by some of the same police officers. He said he had visited Adonis, who had promised that the matter would be investigated but nothing was done.
“All I did was to take my brother-in-law to the commander after he was slapped up by the same set of police, so I don’t know if they are targeting me now,” he said, while noting that the police did not return to the hospital after the attack and he wasn’t told if he would be charged.
“I want back my belongings. They still have my gold chain, one side earring and my shades. I don’t know why I was beaten and treated this way and I didn’t do anything,” he said, while voicing hope about an investigation.
