Crime Chief Leslie James yesterday said that he is satisfied with how police handled security in the city on Elections Day.
Several disruptions occurred towards the end of the day, which had started peacefully.
“The security situation… was well done. There was no loss of life and no reports of persons sustaining injuries,” he said yesterday when asked to give a summary of the security situation. He reported too that for yesterday there was calm in the city and that no reports of disturbances reached his office.
He said that on a general note, the only problematic incident on Monday was the one in Sophia, which resulted in collateral damage but led to the arrest of five persons. All five have since been placed before the court for various charges and the police are currently looking for a sixth individual.
Sometime before 6PM persons congregated in front of the home of Pastor Narine Khublall after it was alleged that ballot boxes were earlier fetched into the residence and that some voting had taken place there. The residence was the PPP/C command centre for the Sophia area. A team from the APNU+AFC coalition visited and after a search told the growing crowd that nothing was found. Persons continued to insist that irregularities had taken place. A second search was conducted and again nothing was found.
It was at this point that bottles and bricks were thrown at the building. By 8PM , the situation escalated and seven vehicles, including one belonging to Joseph Hamilton, who was the PPP/C representative in charge of the command centre, were set alight along with a shack and horse stable located on a dam across the road. A house next door was also badly damaged when angry residents threw items at it and attempted to set it alight. A vehicle parked on the bridge leading to the house was also damaged and a food van parked across the road was overturned.
Police, desperate to control the crowd, fired shots, resulting in two men being shot in the eye and several others being wounded by pellets. Soldiers and riot police later restored calm in the area.
James told Stabroek News that the incident is still being investigated. Asked if the joint services ranks were still securing the scene, he said that police had a “presence close by” as there are still valuables in the buildings that came under attack. James stressed that the “situation is still being monitored.”
Stabroek News inquired about other incidents which had occurred but James said that he is only knowledgeable about one at St. Sidwell’s Primary School involving Kwame McCoy and another in the Tucville/Guyhoc area.
This newspaper asked about an incident at the Church of the Transfiguration on Mandela Avenue, which involved the appearance of two “suspicious” looking vehicles and which led to a mass turnout of residents and subsequently a Joint Services patrol. James said that he had no report of such an incident.
As it relates to the Tucville/Guyhoc Park incident, James stated that a total of four persons were detained. One was found to be an AWOL soldier and he has since been handed over to the Guyana Defence Force, while the other three men were released without charge. One of the trio was cornered and beaten by residents outside the Turning Point Snackette, after he was accused of attempting to steal a ballot box from a polling station located in another section of the area.
Asked about the McCoy incident, which had led to the intervention of APNU+AFC presidential candidate David Granger, James said that he is unaware of McCoy making an official report about injuries he sustained at the hands of persons gathered outside the school but knew that “our report stated that he sustained a fractured jaw.”
When news spread that McCoy was at the school, many persons rushed there owing to concerns that he was attempting to interfere with the polling process. Granger, who later arrived, told the large crowd to allow McCoy to leave the area unharmed. McCoy subsequently entered a black police vehicle which sped off.
Within half an hour of his departure, reports began circulating that he was injured by an angry mob and was taken to hospital. It was also later reported that he had undergone surgery.
A photograph showing Mc Coy with a swollen lip and injuries to his face began circulating on social media. However, video footage of his exit showed he had no injuries and that no one had attempted to harm him up to the time that he entered the vehicle.
