Chaos erupted at Stabroek Market in Georgetown on Wednesday after a 16-year-old boy, accused of being a bandit, was fatally shot by a plainclothes policeman.
The youth, who has been identified as 16-year-old Sydel Bourne, of Agricola, East Bank Demerara, was accused by the lawman of attempting to rob his wife. While the shooter has told the police that the teen robbed his wife, some witnesses claimed that he was merely accused of attempting to do so before being shot in the back.
Bourne was shot just about 14:20 hrs in the vicinity of the Stabroek Market clock.
According to a Guyana Police Force statement, the plainclothes rank, who was armed with his service pistol, was shopping with his wife in the area.
The woman, who is reported to have been wearing a gold chain at the time, claimed that she was attacked by Bourne and two other males.
The police allege that the dead teen was armed with a knife at the time and, along with his accomplices, he managed to relieve the woman of her chain.
The statement further added that one of Bourne’s accomplices ordered him to stab the woman and it was at that point that the woman’s husband fired at them, hitting the teen. The other two suspects managed to escape.
The police did not state whether the knife that Bourne was allegedly armed with at the time of the attack was recovered.
Based on information related to this newspaper by eyewitnesses, the teen was shot after he was accused of trailing the couple and then attempting to rob them. He was reported to be a regular fixture at the market and was known to the vendors in the area.
Eyewitnesses told this publication that the teen was heading into the market via the second gate on the eastern side when he was pursued by the suspect and then shot in the back.
“The boy was running in there and then the man run behind him and fire one shot in he back. When the boy fall down on he face, the man [the policeman] run up to he fuh shoot he again and that is when I jump in. I tell he ‘yuh shoot that man and kill be bai.’ And then he turn he gun on me and that was when me son rush up on he,” vendor Judy (only name given) told this publication.
The woman, who vends just a few feet from where the young man was shot, said that she was traumatised after seeing him lose his life.
Several vendors in the vicinity said that after the man shot Bourne he related that the youth was about to rob his wife.
“He say that they went into the market and this boy was following them and then he try fuh rob them but we nah see nothing like that. Even if the boy go [to] rob them, he had a gun and this is a crowded place, all he had to do was hold on pon de bai and take he to the outpost [a stone’s throw away from where the incident occurred] and let the police deal with he. If he was getting away then he should shoot he on his foot because this place crowded,” another vendor lamented.
According to vendors, after shooting the teen, the man walked over to the Stabroek Police Outpost, where he made a report.
“He went over there to the outpost and then we see a car with no number plate come up and take he away. Then the police come here and they see the man dead then they said that they shouldn’t let the man go,” Judy related.
When Stabroek News arrived at the scene, a large crowd had gathered to get a glimpse of the young man’s body. It was related that Bourne died just a few minutes after being shot and was left at the scene by the ambulance when it turned up.
It took over an hour for a team of investigators to arrive and begin cordoning off the crime scene despite Police Headquart-ers – which houses the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) – being just about 15 minutes away. Additionally, the temporary offices of the Brickdam Police Station are just about five minutes away and Ruimveldt Police Station is also about 20 minutes away from the scene.
Bourne’s body was removed from the scene over two hours after he died.
When members of his family arrived at the scene, they were barred from seeing the body but broke through the police cordon tape to catch a glimpse. They were too distraught to speak to the media but they expressed their shock at the manner in which he was killed.
