Berbice police silent on fatal shooting of Corentyne man

Mark Johnson
Mark Johnson

The administration of the Police B Division has remained silent on the matter involving the Corentyne man who was fatally shot by a cop on Saturday evening.

According to reports, the lawman opened fired on the intoxicated man, after he attempted to attack ranks with a cutlass.

Tomorrow, a post-mortem examination is expected to be conducted on the body of Mark Johnson, also known as, ‘Amin’, 48, a security guard of Lot 13 Nurney Village, Corentyne, relatives yesterday said.

Calls to Commander of B Division, Paul Langevine, for information on the investigation, went unanswered yesterday. Notably, the commander has been unreachable many times since taking up the position in B Division.

It is unclear why Johnson was shot multiple times and whether the ranks had been placed under close arrest pending the investigation. 

The deceased’s sister, Debra Johnson, 51, said her brother sustained three gunshot injuries to his right leg. She noted that according to her daughter, who was also present during the shooting, a total of five gunshots were discharged.  Debra, who noted that she ducked in her house during the shooting, said her daughter had told her that two warning shots were fired first.

Debra said that to her knowledge, four ranks were present in the patrol vehicle. She recalled that at the time of the shooting, three ranks were present in the yard.

The grieving woman explained that last Saturday, around 9 pm, her brother arrived home heavily intoxicated, accompanied by a friend. The woman said she and the friend gave him a bath and took him to the upper flat of the house, where he resided. However, he started to behave in a disorderly manner. “He start throw things and break up things, so me sister does run a shop downstairs and she say she a close up and go home and me a live next door so me go home too,” the woman related.

The woman said her brother then began to issue threats towards her and other relatives. She noted that her daughter pleaded with him to go inside and relax.

However, Johnson said after she too started to plead with him to go inside, he began to throw bottles at her house, breaking several window panes in the process.

She said he then armed himself with a cutlass and issued more threats to both her and her daughter. According to the woman, she had never seen her brother in such a state before. “The patrol did passing and me daughter call them and them come back. The police start to plead with him to calm down and to put down the cutlass, them talk to he,” she recalled.

However, the woman said the agitated man then turned his attention toward the police. She related that after the man attempted to charge towards the police, several shots were fired.

She further noted that following the discharge, the police rushed her brother to the Port Mourant Hospital, from which he was subsequently transferred to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital. Afterward, they received a message that he had succumbed on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the woman described her brother, father to a teenager, as being a “good person in his own way”.

She noted that the man would not often drink to a level where he was unaware of his actions. However, she then claimed that he would get upset quickly over trivial matters.

The woman added that the rank who shot her brother has since visited her and offered an apology. She said the rank spoke with the family and explained that he did not expect the man to lose his life and said for that he was sorry.

Johnson told Stabroek News that she believes that in that situation, the police were “doing their job” but she did not expect her brother to be shot nor did she expect him to die. She added, “But I didn’t expect he to die. You know I’m the type of person that don’t like police story. I would a tell the police to tell he he just had to buy back my window but he wasn’t listening, the police plead with him and he didn’t listen”, she insisted.