The Guyana Police Force yesterday issued a wanted bulletin for one of the suspects in the attack on Managing Director of the Society Against Sexual Orien-tation Discrimination (SASOD) Joel Simpson, who was beaten by a group of men at Bourda Market last month.
In the bulletin, which was issued yesterday afternoon, the police said Maverick De Abreu, 29, whose last known address is known as Lot 56 Broad Street, Charlestown, George-town, is wanted in relation to inflicting grievous bodily harm on Simpson.
This is the second wanted bulletin to be issued by the police for DeAbreu.
In 2017, the police had issued a wanted bulletin for him in connection with the alleged assault of Soca artist Benjai.
DeAbreu is currently on trial for the alleged assault.
Simpson had previously told Stabroek News that after a night out he decided to pick up breakfast from a regular spot in Bourda Market before heading home.
When Simpson arrived at Bourda Market, he said, a group of six men who were harassing him and his friends during a stop at Palm Court were at the snackette. “The guys were there and I was waiting on my turn to order and one of them say, ‘Aye, that’s the guy from PC who disrespect we.’ I didn’t pay any mind and Aunty started asking me what I am getting. I started making my order and while ordering, I just felt being cuffed and kicked and I hit the ground,” Simpson recalled.
He fell a couple of feet away from the snackette and the group of men started to kick him about his body. Instinctively, he said, he covered his head and endured the attack before the snackette owner’s son, Dave, tried to intervene and rescue him. A City Constabulary officer who was on the scene also tried to intervene but was slapped by one of the men.
Subsequently, a verbal altercation ensued between the men and other persons around, as Dave and the City Police pulled him away before the six men left in two white cars.
Simpson described the attack on him as a hate crime and has called for hate crime legislation as he says much more needs to be done to protect members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community, who have been already or may be subject to similar experiences in the future.
Police asked that anyone with information that may lead to the arrest of De Abreu to contact them on telephone numbers 226-1389, 227-2128, 226-7476, 226-7065, 227-2603, 227-1611, 227-1149, 227-1270, 225-6940 to 9, 225-3650, 226-1928, 911 or the nearest police station.
All information will be treated with the strictest confidence, the bulletin added.
