File on Timehri bus park shooting with DPP

The Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is currently in the process of reviewing the file on the shooting of Jean Rodrigues, the woman wounded by a policeman in the vicinity of the Stabroek Market in September last year.

Commander of ‘A’ Division Clifton Hicken told Stabroek News that the file was recently sent to the DPP’s Chambers for advice.

Hicken also said that the officer who was fingered in the shooting was placed on open arrest and was performing duties in the Tactical Services Unit (TSU).

Jean Rodrigues

Rodrigues, 54, of 35 Crane, West Coast Demerara, was shot on September 21, during what police had initially said was crossfire between a rank and a fleeing robbery suspect.

Rodrigues’ daughter, Keitha Persaud, had said that they were standing at the Timehri bus park, where they were waiting on a bus, when her mother told her that she felt a sting on her back.

The woman said when she and her sister checked, it was discovered that the woman had been shot. “…The police were running and shooting behind a guy and end up shooting her in her back,” Persaud said.

Persaud added that she rushed her mother to the hospital via a taxi after realising that she had been shot.

A civilian who was also fingered in the shooting later surrendered to police and a ballistics examination cleared him of firing a weapon.

His mother later called on the police to come forward and clear his name, while saying he had just been a bystander who started to run after police chased after him.

“The police start running behind he and they didn’t even know why he de running,” she said, before adding that the police then opened fire on him.