The string of events that culminated in a bystander being shot dead by the police on Friday night began with a 15-year-old at the wheel of a car who said that he and his three friends decided to stop only at a crowded place for fear that police in a car chasing them were going to open fire.
This was precisely what happened anyway outside of the crowded fish shop on Hadfield Street where bystander Dameon Belgrave was mortally wounded by a police bullet. The three cops in the patrol have since been placed under close arrest.
“I say we not stopping nowhere lonely because I don’t know what the police would do so we say we going to a crowded area,” the underage driver related to Stabroek News yesterday.
That area was outside the White Castle Fish Shop which the young men said they knew is always crowded on a Friday night. Their decision to stop at that location may have saved them injury or worse but resulted in the death of 21-year-old Belgrave who was at his pre-birthday celebration.
The four young men, ages 15, 17, 18 and 23 are now in police custody and the police have since indicated their intention of placing them on an identification parade which the young men had initially opposed. However, their lawyer James Bond has advised them to take part in the parade since they have committed no crime.
While the police in their Saturday release said that the chase began from B Field, Sophia the young men yesterday said that the police started to trail them from Guyhoc Park where they started off the journey.
The eldest of the young men said that he caught up with some friends at a corner in Guyhoc Park popularly known as ‘Cuban corner.’ He said he met the 18-year-old and some other young men on the corner and they were talking when the 15-year-old pulled up in a car. According to the young man they all joined the car and their destination was the popular fish shop to lime. Since the 17-year-old was living in Bent Street he decided to take a ride with them.
‘The chase’
It was while they were heading out of Guyhoc Park that they observed the police vehicle coming in their direction. The ranks then stopped a car that was immediately in front of them.
“When they passing we, I don’t know if is the lil small person deh see driving that they stop but we pass them and then they reverse and start coming but at first we didn’t know it was we they following,” the eldest of the young men said.
The 15-year-old, who is small-built, said that the police did not put on any siren. At first he was afraid to stop because he had no licence and later they all became afraid as they noticed that the policemen had guns and they then decided that they would only stop in a crowded area.
It was dark and the young man said he drove out of Guyhoc Park onto Mandela Avenue and he turned left driving at a fast rate. He said when they arrived at Cemetery Road he attempted to turn into that corner but was quickly advised not to because that area is dark.
“We know if we turn in deh and had to drive through the cemetery where it lonely dat was the end of we because the police coulda stop we and anything coulda happen,” the young man said.
As they drove on, one of the young men said he looked back and saw one of the police officers with half of his body hanging out of the vehicle and with a big gun trained at their car.
“When we see the gun we slide down in the back seat because we didn’t know if dem man woulda shoot,” he said.
The driver said when he looked into the rearview mirror he observed that his two friends in the back seat were lying low even as he picked up speed while being directed by the eldest of the four who was sitting in the front passenger seat. The boy driver, who admitted that he took the car without his father’s knowledge, said he drove all the way to the end of Mandela Avenue then turned into Hunter Street, into Punt Trench, then to Sussex Street, into Charles Street, then Smyth Street, east into Hadfield Street and then straight up, crossing Camp Street and stopped at the crowd which was in front of the fish shop.
`I jump out and I run’
“I jump out and I run,” the driver said and he was followed by the man in the passenger seat right behind him.
The two other young men said that they exited the car and took to the crowd as they heard two gunshots fired.
“I feel like one of the bullets graze the car door when I open it and the only thing I coulda do is plunge to the ground and roll in the grass,” one of the young men said.
The oldest of the four said that he also took to the ground as the police caught up with them. He lay flat on his stomach with his hands above his head.
“And I see they start beating up me friend but I start begging and I tell them that we ain’t commit no crime or anything,” he said, adding that it was at that point persons in the crowd told the lawmen that someone was hit by a bullet and was lying on the ground.
He said initially the police appeared to be unaware that someone was hit and even after they were informed they were more concerned with them instead of checking on the injured person.
It was after it was confirmed that someone was hit that the lawmen started to argue about which one of them fired in the air and who fired into the crowd.
“The one with two teardrop under he eye [a tattoo] and a two gun tattoo on his shoulder said that he shoot in the air. But is the fat one who was sitting at the back… is he shoot in the crowd and you could see on he face is he do it because he looking guilty, guilty,” one of the young men said.
The two related how the policemen first lifted the injured Belgrave and threw him in the back of the vehicle and then took him out before placing him in the back again.
“And when they put the man in I see a big hole in the chest and how the police had me me hand deh resting on deh man and when I tell the police who was in the back …all he do is just tighten the handcuff on me hand,” the young man said.
They related how they travelled with the lawmen to the Georgetown Public Hospital where Belgrave was left before returning to the scene by which time a third youth was detained.
That young man related how he had attempted to escape but was cornered in John Street and arrested by the police.
The driver related how he scampered through the crowd on Hadfield Street and ran to a relative’s home where he remained until his father found him at around 2 am on Saturday. He was taken into the police on Saturday in the company of Bond.
‘A call’
The 15-year-old’s father, who is a mechanic related how he was shocked when he received a call from a customer who informed him that he had heard his car was involved in an accident.
The mechanic recalled that his son had entered his room that evening but he was so tired that he never enquired about his presence. Later in the evening he received a call from another customer who said he was having some issues with his car which had cut out on the East Bank.
It was while he was fixing that customer’s car that he received the news that the other customer’s car was in an accident. That car was supposed to be in his yard and he said he knew right away the only way the car could be involved in an accident was if his son had removed it.
The father said when he left the house he thought his son was at home and he “was praying that the customer was wrong but then I get a second call and I rush down to the area.”
He said when he heard someone was shot he thought it was his son.
“And I see one a dem (the three friends) had lil blood running down from he ears and I said my son must be get shoot,” the father said.
After confirming that it was not his son who had been shot the man said he then started searching for his son before finding him at his relative hours later. He said he was taken down to the police station to give a statement and he later handed his son over to the lawmen.
“Up to now I am still in shock, I did not eat since then and this here I don’t know what to say,” the man said yesterday as he was surrounded by the parents of the other young men.
While happy that their children were not injured the parents said they mourn for the young man who was killed even as they admitted that the actions of their sons were wrong and that the incident should be life changing for the young men.
An eyewitness told Stabroek News that he followed the chase from Smyth Street and he said he observed how the police treated the injured Belgrave after he was hit. The man was also worried that after the squad left another group of lawmen arrived on the scene and a shot was fired off behind the white car that the four young men had been in.
“The shot was fired for no reason and some in the crowd believe that they may have done this to later say that a gun was fired by the young men but people in the crowd was watching them,” the eyewitness said.
The four young men are all in police custody and it is not clear if they will be released today. While it is not certain if three of them would be charged with any offence it is almost certain that the 15-year-old would face the charge of being an unlicensed driver.
