Top Cop assures mother of slain bystander ‘justice will be done’

-says action of police was ‘unprofessional’

Commissioner of Police (ag), Leroy Brumell, yesterday visited the mother of Dameon Belgrave who was fatally shot by ranks on a police patrol last Friday and told her that he will ensure that justice is done.

He also expressed his condolences to the family on behalf of the Guyana Police Force.

Brumell told the man’s mother, Donna Sulker, that he knows that no amount of talking can bring her son back to life but that what he could assure her is that justice will be served. He added that “the action of the police is very unprofessional, two of them who have at least ten years of service.”

Dameon Belgrave

He also stated “I have talked with my senior officers and members of the anti-crime unit and I have told them this is nonsense because some of them are just tarnishing our image.”

In relation to the policemen implicated in the shooting, the commissioner said that the men have been in custody for over 72 hours and the police have gotten an extension from the DPP to keep them under arrest… as long there is a shooting the file usually goes to the Chairman of the Police Complaints Authority first and then to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for the final word.”

Brumell was also asked what is being done in terms of preventing the officers who are under close arrest from escaping like what happened in the case of Shaquille Grant who was also shot dead by policemen.  Brumell’s answer to  the question was “those ranks who got away did not get away from the police, they were working inside and the one that was held was working the day when we received instructions to lock them down… so by the time we get to the homes of the other two they were gone because they were on open arrest.”

Brumell told the woman that he also had a young son about her child’s age and that he likes to lime. He also said that when he heard about the shooting he called his son who informed him that he was at the fish shop and he instructed him to go home. He added ‘’so I don’t want persons to say we are tigers but I can assure you that as long as they committed the crime they have to face the consequences.”

Top Cop visits slain bystander’s family: Dameon Belgrave’s relatives including his mother, Donna Sulker (fifth from right), Police Commissioner, Leroy Brummel (third from right) and APNU Member of Parliament, Joe Harmon (second from right), during a visit to Belgrave’s home yesterday.

Sulker said that she is happy with the commissioner’s visit and she hopes he stands by what he says.

Meanwhile, the four boys in the car the police were chasing when Belgrave was shot were released from police custody on Monday, their attorney, James Bond, said. Bond also said that he is not sure if charges will be brought against his clients.

Belgrave was shot after police opened fire on the car with the four boys which had stopped at the White Castle Fish Shop on Hadfield Street. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Hospital. The teen would have celebrated his 22nd birthday the day after his death.