Police investigators are still trying to determine how the accident that claimed the life of seven-year-old Ciarra Benjamin occurred along the Agricola Public Road on Saturday afternoon, Traffic Chief Linden Isles said yesterday.
To date, Isles told a press conference hosted by Police Commissioner Leslie James at his Eve Leary office yesterday afternoon, there are no eyewitness statements. “We don’t have any eyewitness statement as yet. The aunt, who was with the child, she is not in a position to give a statement presently because she has been going in and out of consciousness… so we are still getting up our act together, getting some statements, trying to locate persons who can give statements,” Isles said.
As a result, the police are appealing to any members of the public who might have witnessed the accident to come forward.
Benjamin, a Grade One student of the Canadian School of Arts and Science, died immediately after she was struck by the truck around 4 pm.
Benjamin, this newspaper had reported, was attempting to cross the public road in the company of her aunt and babysitter, Simone Barry, when she was struck by the truck, which bore licence plate GWW 962.
According to some bystanders, the pair were standing on the median when the truck, which was travelling at a fast rate along the western carriageway of the road, swerved to avoid a car and hit Benjamin.
Others, however, suggested that the child had stepped onto the road but quickly ran back to the median after she saw the truck.
Benjamin’s body was severed by the force of the impact. The lower half of her body was crushed underneath the front of the truck, which was positioned lengthwise on the median.
Following Benjamin’s death, some residents of the area launched an attack on the truck driver, Danion Leary Welcome, and the vehicle was later set on fire.
Vigilante justice
James noted that an incendiary device is suspected to have been hurled into the cabin of the truck after the accident.
“…It was someone I am told that hurled an incendiary device which entered, I think, into the cabin of the truck and the truck cabin was engulfed in flames and then of course you had this whole fire. The conflagration that followed was as a result of gasoline, the tank being exploded and things like that,” James explained.
James said that all aspects of the case, that is the accident resulting in the death of Benjamin, the assault of the driver and the alleged arson of the truck involved, are being investigated.
At the end of the investigation, he said, those found culpable will be bought before the courts and charged.
“I wish to make it very clear that we are investigating recordings of persons who may have assaulted that driver and once [we] so identify, we will be taking actions in terms of charges of persons who might have assaulted that person,” he said.
“…What ensued therefrom is that residents in the immediate area become very much irate and try to, well they meted out their ire on the driver. That was before the police arrived. On arrival of the police, the driver was safely escorted from there,” he added.
James urged citizens to refrain from vigilante justice.
“…I want to call also on all Guyanese to express some restraint, express general restraint. There might be an accident where a loved one or a member of your community might have been involved or loss their life but you ought not to engage in what is referred to as vigilante justice…..and what we have seen in the videos is totally wrong. And, as I said, that is being investigated and whoever is identified we are pursuing that and those persons are likely to be charged and placed before our courts,” he said.
In a video seen by this newspaper, Welcome was seen sitting in the cab of the truck while at least one person dealt him blows about his body with a steel pipe.
The beating left him drenched in his own blood before he was rescued by the police.
Welcome received medical attention and is presently in police custody. He is likely to be charged with causing Benjamin’s death once the investigation is completed.
James explained traffic ranks were initially dispatched to the scene after the police received a report of the accident. However, after the situation escalated, he said 15 police officers, including ranks from the Tactical Services Unit, were deployed.
“…Following that accident, the police indeed were summoned. The police arrived. In the main, ranks from the Traffic Department… I personally having being briefed by the Commander of ‘A’ Division Mr Chapman, I caused 15 junior ranks and an officer from the Tactical Services Unit to be deployed to that place, “James noted.
Grief stricken
Meanwhile, attorney James Bond, who is representing Welcome, said that the incident has left him “distraught and grief stricken.”
Bond said Welcome was met with vigilante justice, which has left him with a fractured skull and severe injuries to his arm, back and neck. “Welcome has been tried and convicted in the court of public opinion…,” Bond said.
He also urged citizens to refrain from vigilante justice.
In this instance, he said, “an innocent man has been treated unfairly.”
Bond stated that his client was not “negligent, careless or reckless” as he was proceeding at a speed of 20 kmph at the time of the accident and was forced onto the median by a taxi.
Bond argued that Benjamin should not have been there. “This was approximately 30 feet from the pedestrian crossing. Investigations thus far have revealed no skid marks. The truck did not careen into the eastern lanes of the highway neither did it smash into the light poles a mere five feet away. It practically bumped on to the median and rested there,” he said.
