GUYANA-Police promising impartial investigation into the shooting death of man

GEORGETOWN, Guyana– Acting Police Commissioner Clifton Hicken, Monday promised an impartial probe into the death of 23-year-old Quindon Bacchus, who was shot by police in Haslington, a sugar plantation along the East Coast Demerara last weekend.

Residents of the East Coast Demerara village of Golden Grove stage a protest as Hicken visited the family of Bacchus, assuring them that the investigation would be impartial.

“There will be an impartial investigation. The Police Complaints Authority will be investigating this matter, and that’s the body that was constituted to deal with matters of this nature. The police will have no interference”, Hicken said.

He said the Police Complaints Authority, headed by retired Judge Justice William Ramlall, has its investigators and will be in charge of the probe. He said all information and evidence gathered by the police would be handed over to the Complaints Authority.

In its initial release, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) claimed that officers were conducting an operation in the Haslington area when Bacchus was spotted with a gun and started to fire shots at the police as they approached him.

The police said that they returned fire, killing the 25-year-old father of one.

But in a later update, the GPF reported that Bacchus was the target of an intelligence-led police operation and was attempting to sell a gun to an undercover police officer when he ran and opened fire on the police.

“In handing over the firearm to the rank, an alarm was raised. As a result, the now-deceased man ran in a southern direction and discharged a round in the rank’s order, who drew his service pistol and returned fire.

“Bacchus then ran further south and jumped into a yard, and the rank gave chase. While nearby, Bacchus discharged several other rounds towards the rank who took cover and returned fire, hitting the now-deceased man about his body,” the police said.

The police said they recovered a .380 gun with one live round at the scene.

But family members say they do not share the police report on the matter with the mother, who identified the deceased, saying that there were multiple gunshot wounds to her son’s body and one to the head.

Bacchus’ death came less than two hours after he was surprised by his girlfriend and their young son, who flew into the country on Friday to spend the son’s third birthday and Father’s Day with him.