THE Guyana Police Force (GPF) continues to be placed between a rock and a hard place with respect to its efforts to regain public confidence and support while having to deal with isolated cases of police misconduct, misjudgment or incidents which attract public criticism during the execution of their duties.
The Guyana Chronicle was able to confirm Tuesday that although the GPF has distanced itself from allegations that a rank on a police patrol had deliberately shot Albuoystown resident Adrian Bishop on Saturday night, the Force has already commenced criminal and internal investigations into the matter, to ascertain what really went wrong on the night in question.
Reliable sources within the GPF have related that the Police Office for Professional Responsibility (OPR) and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) have commenced investigating the matter, and that statements have already been taken from persons who had been on that patrol as well as from the female CID rank who had made the report that the now deceased Bishop had abused her.
The Office for Professional Responsibility in particular is calling on independent witnesses who had been present when the incident occurred and had therefore seen what had transpired to come forward and give statements to the GPF.
The Chronicle was told that the GPF has decided to take this approach in its aim to ensure that the matter is properly investigated, without prejudice or any form of bias, hence the call to the public to be forthcoming with their statements.
RECAP
Last Saturday night, a female police rank attached to the Criminal Investigation Department made contact with her colleagues to effect an arrest of her abusive boyfriend, who is no stranger to the law, and was, up to the time of his death, on bail for armed robbery.
It is alleged that the police showed up and, without properly approaching Bishop, began assaulting him, while one of them cranked a gun and shot him then proclaimed that he did not know that the weapon would discharge a round.
The rank then reportedly made telephone contact with someone, informing that person that he had just killed a man; and shortly after, the patrol with policemen sped off to the hospital with Bishop, who was pronounced dead on arrival there.
The police have since claimed in a press release that Bishop had been shot while attempting to relieve a rank of his service weapon during a scuffle, and that the weapon went off, causing him to be shot in the neck. That claim by the police has been refuted by persons who claimed to have been on the scene when the incident occurred.
Now that the police are seeking eyewitnesses to come forward and provide statements describing what they had witnessed, it is unclear whether the same persons who had told media operatives their version of the incident would respond to the GPF call to submit statements so that the police can properly investigate the matter.
So far, only one person has responded to the GPF call, and that person’s statement has contradicted the statements given by the three police ranks who had been on the patrol, as well as what is contained in the release issued by the Guyana Police Force.
Persons attached to the Criminal Investigation Department have indicated that the now deceased Bishop had not been someone who would usually allow himself to be arrested easily, and on each occasion that he had a brush with the law, he had stoutly resisted the arresting ranks.
It was also stated that Bishop would, at times, stand in court and make accusations that arresting ranks had been abusive to him.
(By Leroy Smith)