A 27-year-old New Amsterdam man is now frustrated after he was arrested without cause on Sunday evening while attempting to access the main road in New Amsterdam after the regional Mashramani parade. He was eventually released from police custody following the intervention of a sergeant after it was discovered that the arresting officer was unsure of what crime he had committed and claimed he was instructed to arrest the man.
Dequan Williams, 27, of New Amsterdam explained that he was heading to Main Street, New Amsterdam through Lad Lane when he encountered some men drinking and partying; they had vehicles that were blocking access to Main Street.
He said he exited his car and asked the men to allow a “small pass” as he had his pregnant fiancée in the vehicle and they were going to purchase food. He said his fiancée was not feeling well at the time. However, he said, the men informed him that they were police officers and that he would be unable to pass. They were all casually dressed.
According to him, one of the men, who had a gun in his waist, approached him and he told the man that he was not comfortable speaking with him as he was armed and he did not want any confrontation that might result in the situation going south.
Instead, Williams said, he reached out to a friend who is known to the traffic chief, and after a while, some lawmen arrived at the location and cleared the vehicles.
However, as Williams attempted to drive through, someone opened the passenger door of a vehicle that was still there and this effectively blocked him from proceeding. He said he exited his vehicle once more and asked to be allowed to pass, but the person refused to close the door. At that stage, a lone traffic policeman arrived at the location and ordered Williams to hand over the documents for his vehicle. He said he was confused as to what was being asked, but proceeded to his vehicle to collect his documents. The policeman followed him, accused him of taking too long to produce his documents and grabbed him by the waist.
The young man said the policeman stressed that he was given instructions to arrest him. “He dragged me and take me to the vehicle and throw me in the back and carry me to the station,” he related.
Williams had to eventually phone a cousin to go to the location to take his pregnant fiancée home.
Meanwhile, when Williams arrived at the New Amsterdam Police Station he met his father-in-law also under arrest. He said his father-in-law told him that he had gone to Lad Lane and asked the passenger to close the door so Williams’s car could pass, when the police approached him and placed him under arrest.
According to Williams, he had been at the station for about one hour when a sergeant arrived. He noted that several other people had also been arrested for minor motorcycle issues. He said the sergeant began asking people what they were arrested for and when he got to Williams and his father-in-law, they informed him that they were not sure.
The sergeant then sought clarity from the policemen present, including the arresting officer whose only answer was that he was given “instructions” to arrest them.
Williams said the sergeant upbraided the policemen and questioned how they could have arrested two men without cause and immediately sent home Williams and his father-in-law.
A frustrated Williams yesterday said that it was a “very bad experience and also embarrassing”. He stressed that it was uncalled for as he complied with every request by the police and was not in the wrong from the beginning of the situation.
He said he was considering reporting the issue to the Police Complaints Authority, noting that it was raised with several senior officers in the division.
Efforts to contact the Commander of Region Six Shivpersaud Bacchus for a comment on the matter proved futile.
Last Thursday, residents in Rose Hall, Corentyne took to the street in protest accusing lawmen of wrongfully arresting a young man in connection with a robbery committed at a business place on February, 27.
After the robbery, several raids were carried out and Romel Thomas also known as ‘Govo’, 24, of Rose Hall was arrested along with others. However, Thomas’s relatives had insisted that he was nowhere near the location at the time of the robbery. Hours after the protest, he was eventually released from police custody.
