A relative of 27-year-old Kevin Maloney, who was shot by police on Friday night, is denying the police’s claim that the man attacked a policeman with a knife, stating the man was shot after he refused to pick up a marijuana  joint that was on the roadway.

Candacy Maloney, a sister of the now hospitalised man, yesterday told Stabroek News that her brother was sitting with others outside the Alimo nightspot at the corner of William and Queen streets, Kitty when the mobile police patrol approached them and searched them.

According to Candacy, the police had already searched her brother but instead of walking away, her brother stood on the sidewalk and observed the police while they were searching the others.

“During the time, he like making joke and asking them why they searching the men, he know the police dem, they does always like harass he,” the woman said. She said during the search someone dropped a marijuana joint on the ground and after her brother got the lawmen upset one of them told him to pick up the joint and enter the vehicle.

“He seh he not going in no vehicle and he ain’t picking up nothing and he start backing away on a bridge and then one a them start cuffing he and he back away some more,” the woman said. She claimed that one of the police officers told her brother that he wanted to catch him a long time and her brother continued to step back into a yard.

The police officer then “crank up he gun and shoot he in he shoulder and then when people ask he why he shoot deh man he say how he try to take away he gun.”

Maloney was then taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he is now a patient.
The sister said her brother is in a critical condition because the bullet is still lodged in his shoulder and he is suffering from internal bleeding.

The police on Saturday in a release said that Maloney was observed by ranks in the mobile patrol acting in a suspicious manner and when they searched him a quantity of marijuana was found. The release said after the marijuana was found Maloney “made a dash” for it and was pursued by one of the ranks. During the chase the police said Maloney pulled out a knife from his boot and “menacingly attacked” the officer and was shot.