Russell St shooting

The mother of the man, who was shot and killed by police on Saturday, said yesterday that the circumstances under which her son met his death were suspicious.

From information relayed to her by witnesses, she said, her son was walking along the road when he was shot.

Kevin Dillon, 24, of Plum Park, Sophia was fatally wounded by police on Saturday. He succumbed at the Georgetown Public Hospital to the wounds received, while receiving medical attention, police said.

However, his mother, Sheila Solomon, is disputing the police’s account.

Police, in a statement on Saturday said the incident occurred at Russell and Princes streets at 1.25 pm. The police said ranks of a mobile patrol saw a white AT 212 Carina car HB 3505 parked at Princes and Russell streets with the driver and two other men inside. “The police challenged the occupants, whereupon the two men exited and one of them opened fire on the police while the driver drove away in the motor car,” the statement said.

The police said they returned fire hitting one of the men, identified as Dillon. An unlicensed .38 revolver with one spent shell and two live rounds were recovered from him, the release said, stating that the other man who is a known character from North Sophia and who has been charged with robbery on a number of occasions, was arrested and an unlicensed .38 revolver with six matching rounds was recovered from him.

In another statement yesterday, police said that as investigations continued into the armed robbery committed on Toolsie Persaud Limited, Lombard Street on Saturday, both Dillon and his accomplice, who is in police custody, were identified by one of the victims as being the men who perpetrated the robbery.

“They have also been identified as being involved in the armed robbery of a businessman recently at Middleton Street, Campbellville, Georgetown,” the release stated.

Solomon told Stabroek News yesterday that her son worked at the Stabroek Market selling caps. She said that on Saturday, he was assisting a friend at her stall and left some time after midday after borrowing $300 from the friend.

Solomon said persons near the scene told her that her son was walking along when the police pulled up in a vehicle and shot him.

The woman said her son had no gun and had never been in trouble with the law before. She said the police had subsequently questioned her on whether he had had brushes with the law. “That’s why it hurting me so much. If he de ever been involve in a lil thieving or something like that, it would not hurt so bad. But he never had no brushes with the police,” she stated.

Solomon, who repeatedly lamented the manner in which her son met his death, said Dillon assisted his brother, who operates a stall at Stabroek Market and he often assisted other vendors as well. The woman said policemen who worked in that area knew her son.

In March last year, Stabroek News had interviewed Dillon, while he was involved in a horticulture project in his community. He had told this newspaper then that things had been hard for him since November 2006 when he was forced to give up vending caps and sneakers at the Stabroek Market Square. “They tell we to build a stall and fix up properly and after I do that they tell me I had to leave. I invest me money and had to leave, that was my life,” the young man had said.

The project, embarked on by horticulturalist, political activist and philanthropist Boyo Ramsaroop, sought to assist Plum Park residents in difficult circumstances. Dillon had told this newspaper that the job was not the one he dreamed of doing as a young boy, but it was an honest living.

During the interview, he had also disclosed that his cousin, policeman Lloyd Cameron had been gunned down at their Sophia home in front of his eyes about four years prior. He had said that he had pledged on that day not to let his relatives down nor do anything his family would not approve of.