The police say that a robbery suspect was shot yesterday morning at Bagotville after he resisted arrest but this version has been hotly disputed by residents of the area.
Angela Delph, the mother of 24-year-old Mark Moore, said she was told by residents that her son was dragged at 5.45 am from his David Rose Street, Bagotville, West Bank Demerara residence and shot during the process. She is calling on the authorities for justice.
The police in a statement said that the suspect is wanted in connection with several armed robberies on the West Bank and is presently under police guard at the West Demerara Regional Hospital in a stable condition nursing a single gunshot wound to his right leg. The statement went on to say that the suspect was being escorted to a police vehicle when he allegedly assaulted the ranks and tried to disarm one of them of his service weapon. In the process, the rank discharged a round hitting the suspect below his right knee, the police said.
However, according to residents of the village, this was not what had transpired yesterday morning. One resident who did not provide a name, told Stabroek News that he was awakened by a commotion. When he ventured outside on his steps he saw Moore and the police arguing on the road. The eyewitness said he heard Moore asking the officers who were armed what they wanted with him and why they wanted him down at the police station. The resident said that as Moore was making his way into his grandmother’s yard which is near to his, several officers walked behind him and seconds after a lone gunshot rang out. The resident said the rest of the police who were in the van, ran into the yard and were hollering “Why y’all shoot the man?”.
According to one of Moore’s relatives, he was dragged out of his home by the police.
“The police said they come to search up the boy place for guns, ammunition and drugs but they ain’t find nothing so they drag him through the dam and bring him on the road where their van was parked”, the relative said. She said that Moore never wrestled with any of the policemen which the police claimed led to him being shot.
She said he was walking away from the police going towards his grandmother’s steps when a policeman shot him. “He [Moore] know all of them good good, so I don’t know why that one had to shoot him, and is at the back part of his leg to so he could not be wresting with none of them, who does even wrestle with police when all of them got guns!” the relative argued.
The relative pointed out to Stabroek News where Moore was shot and where there was a broken window on a bus which was allegedly damaged by the police. The relative expressed concerns about the way the police handled the situation, saying that there were children and elderly persons in the home outside of which he was shot.
“My sister had to run outside and tell them stop the shooting, our children’s bedrooms were not too far away and normally my grandfather would be in the yard that hour in the morning, it was just wrong what they did man”, the relative lamented.
Meanwhile, Delph, who spoke with this newspaper at the hospital said that though her son has had run-ins with the law, what happened yesterday morning was uncalled for. She said when she arrived at the hospital to enquire from the police who shot her son, she said they were all passing blame to one another. “I know one of them and I ask him if they had a wanted bulletin for my son, and he could not have answered me”, Delph said.
At the hospital, Stabroek News saw images of Moore whose leg was wrapped but with blood dripping to the floor. Delph told Stabroek News that her son was in that condition since the police took him to the hospital.
“I need them to look after my son…” the mother stated. She added that the staff at the hospital told her that her son could not be taken to the theatre since there was only one technician available and to transfer him to the Georgetown Public Hospital, they would need the consent from the hospital’s administrator who was not present at the time.
“It is hard to see my son in this condition as a mother, they drag my son out the house, shoot him and they left him at the hospital … now if he is some big criminal as they claimed why more police not here watching him, why they did not handcuff him to the bed?” Delph questioned. “You come for somebody in their home, when they were sleeping, why you did not place him in handcuffs?
I voted for change but like this change will kill my son, I want justice, I need to know why they shoot my son”, the mother lamented.
According to the police in the statement issued, an investigation into the matter is in progress.
