Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC) Khemraj Ramjattan has lauded the work of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) in recommending that three police officers be charged over their roles in the killing of Quindon Bacchus.
Based on the PCA’s findings and the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Lance Corporal Kristoff DeNobrega was charged with murder last Tuesday, while Thurston Simon and newly promoted Cadet Officer Dameion McLennon were charged for obstruction of justice based on the allegation that they tried to cover up the manner in which Bacchus was killed. They were all remanded to prison.
At a press conference on Friday, Ramjattan said that the PCA-supervised investigation was a step in the right direction.
The PCA was given the mandate to supervise an impartial probe into Bacchus’s killing after questions were raised.
Bacchus, 23, a father of one, was shot and killed by a policeman on June 10 at Haslington New Scheme, ECD. Police had initially said that he was killed after a shootout with an undercover lawman to whom he had tried to sell a gun.
During DeNobrega’s arraignment, Police Prosecutor Neville Jeffers disclosed that the investigation of the shooting revealed that the firearm which Bacchus had was not in working condition, thereby contradicting the claim that he shot at the police.
Ramjattan on Friday said “The recent Police Complaints Authority’s supervised investigation into the murder of Bacchus by rogue policemen and the attempted cover-up by two of his compadres which otherwise would have not seen justice done, is presently welcomed and embraced by the AFC. The AFC congratulates the Police Complaints Authority on this forthwith remedial action.”
He added that the establishment of the PCA in 1989 was seen as the mechanism for ensuring transparency and accountability and ultimately public confidence in the Guyana Police Force. He noted that the authority can ensure weeding out of rogue elements and encourage professionalism within ranks and officers of the Police Force.
“This necessary guardrail and our security apparatus and its personnel must be further maintained and strengthened by the government providing more administrative and financial resources now that billions are available,” he said.
The AFC leader said the PCA’s investigation is far more superior to that of the Police Force, before adding that while the investigation may have not addressed all of the allegations, it did uncover the glaring inconsistencies in the police force’s version of the events.
“The fact that you have a situation whereby the three of them are indicating that they were being shot at by a weapon that was not working, obviously meant that they were lying about certain things. In truth, my understanding is that they went there by themselves on some odious deal, and I rather suspect that at the trial they can bring all of that [out and also who gave] them instructions on how to go there.
“But at this stage when you use that kind of excessive force of six bullets in a person’s body, five in his back and one in his chest and with a gun that is now proven to be outside of working condition, it leaves a lot to be desired, and sometimes you have to bring to a certain line the investigation’s end. Otherwise, if you gone now and start asking, who is the senior rank that gave the instructions and you’re not getting anywhere, you might very well find yourself not dealing with the actual shooting incident,” Ramjattan lamented.
He added that Chair of the PCA retired Justice William Ramlal is a capable lawyer and as such he believes that the investigation was properly conducted.
