An 18-year-old Bachelor’s Adventure resident was yesterday afternoon shot by police on patrol in the area, leaving relatives and residents outraged at what they alleged was an act of police brutality.
The injured man is Yannick Willis who is now a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
The man’s mother Mohinie Kumarie Sukar told Stabroek News that at about 5 pm, yesterday her son was riding his bicycle just as the police were on patrol in the area. She said that her son was in the company of another relative at the time but that he tried to ride away when he saw the police coming. A relative explained that the police are usually harsh on persons who do not have lights on their bicycles and many persons guilty of riding without lights would try to get away when they see the patrol.
According to Sukar, the police fired two shots in the direction of her son both of which missed him. She said that in trying to avoid the shots her son fell onto the parapet, after which one of the officers disembarked the vehicle and shot her son in his left thigh. After he was shot, the police reportedly demanded that Willis go into a trench to retrieve a gun which they [the police] said they saw Willis throw into the trench. A search of the drain by several persons, the police included, recovered nothing, the relatives said.
They said, by this time outraged residents from the community as well as other neighbouring village came out in support of the shot man. “Some of them even shine light and ask the police where the gun, dey because they know he ain had no gun,” one relative said. Some persons who tried to come to the rescue of the man , relatives alleged, were also beaten.
The man’s mother said that the police are yet to give her an official explanation as to why they shot her son. But according to her, she heard from one officer that her son was wanted in connection with a robbery that was committed on a relative of a police officer, three days ago. “My son is not a thief. He is a mason and a carpenter,” the upset woman said. The woman was also upset that after they shot her son, the police took more than two hours before they took him to the hospital. “All the time he was bleeding,” the woman said.
The woman and other relatives have vowed to fight until they get justice. “This is not right. We are going to fight this,” another relative named said.
Sukar said that she is grateful for the support she got from both the residents of Bachelor’s Adventure and Bare Root. “I am very thankful for everybody that support me and my child,” the woman said.
