The three policemen accused of beating an automotive salesman last week Friday night, claimed that he had in fact assaulted them, when they appeared for a confrontation with the injured man on Friday.
After several days of running to and from the Brickdam Police Station where 30-year-old Kwesi Smith had lodged a report of assault by the ranks last Friday evening, the man’s relatives told this newspaper on Friday that the three officers claimed Smith assaulted them as they attempted to arrest him that evening. Police officials could not be reached for a comment.
The TSU ranks told the investigating team that Smith was in a minibus at the bus park last Friday evening when someone shouted a derogatory remark at them. The ranks reportedly said they pursued the Route 47 minibus carried out a search of the passengers, but Smith refused to be searched. In the process, they claimed, he “cuffed the policeman”.
Smith’s relatives said the ranks “did not say much”, with regard to the physical assault meted out to the man. However, one of the man’s relatives stated that two of the ranks provided a different account of what transpired up to the point when Smith was assaulted and the three officers are expected to meet again as the confrontation with the father of one continues.
The man’s relatives were making attempts on Friday to locate the minibus driver as well as two other individuals who reportedly witnessed the incident.
Smith, during an interview with this newspaper last week, said he was on his way home from work at Automotive Art, dressed in the uniform of his workplace when another passenger who was seated next to him in the front seat of the minibus shouted a derogatory remark to the occupants of a police vehicle. He said the vehicle had disrupted the flow of traffic at the busy, Stabroek Market area around 7.15 that evening.
After the bus drove off, the ranks drove behind the minibus, stopped and searched the passengers, while Smith was placed separately from the other passengers. Smith recounted that the individual who had shouted the derogatory remark had already disappeared in a nearby crowd when the police began to search him. He said this was pointed out to the ranks and as the officers continued to search him, he asked the officers why this was being done.
Smith, of Lot 66 William Street, Campbellville, said one of the officers then “collared” him and began to assault him, while the two other officers joined in.
During the ordeal, Smith said, one of the men gun-butted him at the back of the head while, all the time using indecent language.
It was after the rank who was driving the vehicle at the time hit him in the right side with his gun that he entered the vehicle and the ranks then proceeded to the Brickdam Police Station.
He said one of the officers even attempted to physically assault him further on the way to the police station but the rank driving the vehicle continued on the way to the station.
After being released on $5,000 station bail, Smith said, he was provided with a medical form and he made his way to the Georgetown Hospital where he sought medical attention for the injuries he sustained to his face and his right side. The man said he would not allow the matter to rest stating that his rights to question the police on what grounds he was being arrested, were breached, adding that the beating which followed was testimony of the officers “taking the law into their own hands”.
