Guy Nurse, who was formerly the Assistant Super-intendent of Police and Officer-in-Charge of the Tactical Services Unit (TSU) yesterday denied claims made by subordinates before the Commis-sion of Inquiry into the March 2, 2020 general elections that he had handed down instructions to get the GECOM Chair out of the Ashmins building on March 5th.
Nurse who is now the Deputy Commander of Region Five yesterday testified under a summons which was issued on December 2nd. Earlier, the Commission of Inquiry had heard from Clifton Davis who was heading the TSU unit on the day in question and another cop that Nurse was the one who had issued the instruction for Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chair, Justice (rtd) Claudette Singh to be escorted from the Ashmins buildings which has been the scene of elections tumult.
Nurse yesterday testified that such instructions were never handed down by him and he is unaware of where they came from. He told the CoI that the only instructions which he sent out and which came from the then Commissioner of Police, Leslie James, was to have the ranks from the TSU go to the Ashmins location to “secure the building.” This would have been after the GECOM Chair was escorted from the building.
Upon his appearance before the CoI yesterday, the witness was posed two questions by the Commission’s Counsel, Sophia Chote SC. She asked Nurse if he had ever given instructions to the unit to go to the building and escort the GECOM Chair out of it and if he was ever told by Davis that he (Davis) had gotten such instructions. He replied in the negative to both questions.
Nurse said that during the elections unrest on March 5th, 2020, he was at the TSU Headquarters at Eve Leary attending to other duties while his unit which comprised of 34 ranks, including two TSU drivers, was on standby at the Brickdam Police Station.
Asked by Chote when he had deployed the unit there, he that that decision or instruction had been issued during planning for the elections in 2020. “Those instructions won’t have been received on the fifth (of March), it was received before…it was the elections period and as part of the force’s plan the unit would be on standby at Brickdam because it was the election period, so it wasn’t only the fifth but even before election…on election day the unit would be on standby every day until so advised not to do so,” the witness said. He also noted that Deputy Superintendent Davis was at the time heading the unit.
Nurse was further asked at what time his unit had returned to the headquarters at Eve Leary, to which he replied, “after 6 pm in the evening…that would be maybe after in the evening when they came back…after they returned to TSU they had to go out back, that’s the only time I would’ve known…I wasn’t aware that they moved from Brickdam to move the GECOM commissioner.”
Nurse also added that he did not hear any such instructions being passed on through the unit’s radio transmission and that due to many activities occurring during that time, there may have not been adequate time for Davis to keep in contact with him and to inform him of what was happening.
Crucial time
He was then questioned by former Chancellor (ag) of the Guyana Judiciary, Carl Singh, who asked him as a senior rank and Officer-in-Charge of the TSU, if it was not his responsibility to ask and to be briefed on the unit’s daily activities, especially during such a crucial time. He replied, “…I didn’t even had the opportunity to talk to them when they returned…because remember during that time (while at Brickdam) they would be under the command of the Commander of 4 ‘A’, Assistant Commissioner Edgar Thomas.” He added that when Davis went back to headquarters, he did not brief him on what had occurred and due to him (Nurse) not knowing, he did not ask him.
According to Chote, after the unit returned to the headquarters at Eve Leary, Nurse said in his statement that he received a call from the then Commissioner of Police, James, instructing him (Nurse) to dispatch the TSU ranks to the Ashmins building to “deal with a situation.”
Asked what that “situation” was, Nurse told the CoI that he could not recall if those were the exact words of the Commission-er, and instead said, “he instructed that the unit should go to Ashmins building and assist in securing the building…” He said he did not tell the unit what they were going to the Ashmins building for, but told them to go to report to the Commander (Thomas) since he would’ve been the one in charge of the building and as such it was his duty to inform them when they reached there. Nurse said it was a part of the police Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
“Even though I would’ve gotten instructions to do something, they still have to report to the most senior person who would have to speak to them on the ground of what it is, because if I give them instructions (it) might be wrong instructions.” He then stated that he didn’t see it necessary to call Thomas and brief him on what the commissioner had called and instructed him to do.
Additionally, Nurse explained that his unit is only deployed to a scene upon request, and to his knowledge, it had to be the then Commander of Regional Division 4 ‘A’ Thomas requesting from the Commissioner to have the TSU there.
The witness added that he received a call from Davis who told him that the unit had reported to Thomas who informed them that he (Thomas) was “negotiating” with the people there “on a way forward”. He said after hearing that, he called the Commissioner “immediately” and told him what Davis had reported to him. He then added that the Commissioner stated that he would contact Thomas and the phone call ended.
When Davis returned much later that evening, he informed Nurse that the building had been secured. Nurse further said that later on in the day he saw a video on social media where chaos had broken out at the Ashmins building. He told the CoI that after seeing that video, there was nothing that he could have done and stated that the Commissioner would have been the one to decide on what to do.
Asked by Chair of the CoI, Justice Stanley John, if as a senior officer who was in charge of the TSU, if he couldn’t have done anything or if he had asked Davis about the chaotic occurrence at the building, Nurse said that in the video he saw Davis clearing the building which was a part of what he was instructed to do.
Based on previous evidence provided to CoI and which Nurse was briefed on, the man said that it was the first time that he was hearing that Thomas had not requested the TSU to go to the Ashmins building.
Thomas had previously told the CoI that the he was not aware of the reason for the TSU being there and to his knowledge, they had “no business” being there.
Nurse was also asked by the commission if there was a specific ledger that documented the TSU’s activities on that day and if he was aware of it. He replied uncertainly. He told them that the unit’s activities are documented but with different type of names depending on the activity that they were involved and he was uncertain if it was available.
