The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shalimar Ali-Hack on Wednesday withdrew a joint murder charge against two Police Officers who were charged over the fatal shooting of an unarmed man during a police operation earlier this year.
Police constable Troy Munroe and Police Corporal Godwin Thomas were freed of the joint charge, although the DDP has advised that Munroe be charged with the lesser offence of manslaughter. The police have said that this decision was made following a review of the case file. Additionally, the police have been advised to conduct investigations in relation to the ballistic evidence. The findings will be returned to the DPP for further advice on Thomas and another police rank.
Corporal Munroe and Constable Thomas were previously charged with the murder of 39-year-old Cecil Sampat, a John Fernandes Limited employee, who was unarmed when he was shot four times on July 25th, 2020 by Police ranks.
According to information disclosed by the police, at around 1.30 am on Saturday, July 25, three police officers on patrol observed a large gathering at the junction of Agricola Road and the East Bank Highway. The police asked that the crowd disperse, however, at the time the police also witnessed a fight between two men, one of whom whipped out a gun and pointed it in the direction of the other while trying to make his escape in a car bearing registration number PYY 4432.
As a result, the police chased after the vehicle. The pursuit ended at D’Urban Street and Mandela Avenue. There, the first GPF patrol requested that the vehicle’s occupants lie on the ground while the other officers made their way to the scene. The report by the police did not state when or how the men were shot but that two men who were injured were escorted to the hospital by the police. The two injured men nursing gunshot wounds to their backs, were identified as Sampat and Winston Fraser. Fraser suffered a gunshot wound to his upper back, while Sampat, who was said to be a passenger of the car seated at the left side of the backseat, suffered three gunshot wounds to his lower back. The other two occupants of the car were 22-year-old Joshua Letlow, of East Ruimveldt, and 23-year-old Seon Greenidge, a block maker. Greenidge was said to be a passenger in the front seat of the car, and also one of the two men who were involved in the altercation at Agricola Road.
