Latest update November 23rd, 2024 12:13 AM
So who killed the protesters?
– Crime Chief denies saying cops who shot Lindeners identified
By Michael Jordan
Deputy Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud has ‘vehemently denied’ telling Kaieteur News that investigators have identified the police ranks who shot and killed the Linden protesters.
The article appeared in the August 3rd issue of the Kaieteur News with the headline ‘Shooters identified – Crime Chief.’
It triggered a response from the Police Public Relations Department.
Deputy Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud
“In the article, remarks are attributed to Deputy Commissioner “Law Enforcement,” Mr. Seelall Persaud, DSM, who is alleged to have told Kaieteur News reporter Michael Jordan that “The policemen who shot and killed three Linden protestors have been identified”.
“The Deputy Commissioner “Law Enforcement” vehemently denies that he ever made such a statement to Michael Jordan.
But Crime Chief Persaud had also told Kaieteur News that shotguns were the weapons used in the shooting of the protesters. He had also added that “we know who had shotguns and we have statements from those who discharged rounds.”
During the early stages of the investigation, Persaud had also indicated that ranks armed with shotguns had opened fire on the day of the protest. He had said that four shotgun cartridges were unaccounted for, and that the ranks who used the shotguns have submitted reports to investigators.
The Force has never denied that police ranks were the individuals who killed Shemroy Bouyea, Ron Somerset and Allan Lewis and wounded several others.
However, both the police and the Home Affairs Minister did deny that the police were directed by any government functionary. A Ministry of Home Affairs release has stated that “the events which took place at the Mackenzie-Wismar Bridge was (sic) strictly a Police operation with no direct or indirect involvement of the Ministry of Home Affairs.”
During Thursday’s interview, Crime Chief Persaud was responding to a Kaieteur News article, which quoted a police official as saying that “ballistic tests have revealed that ranks firing shotguns loaded with copper-coated cartridges killed the three Linden protesters and injured several others.”
The police had initially refuted the article’s contents, while stating that investigators are still to reach a definite conclusion on the calibre of the ammunition that killed the three men.
According to police sources, copper-coated shotgun pellets were extracted from two of the slain men.
Some police sources are asking why their colleagues were using the copper-coated cartridges, which are far more lethal than cartridges loaded with ‘birdshot’.
They explained that the ‘birdshot’ cartridges could just as effectively have dispersed the unarmed gathering.
It is believed that the ranks were standing about 15 feet from the protesters when they opened fire directly at them.
The sources also suggested that the ranks should have aimed at the ground and that the recently acquired water cannon should have been deployed to Linden before, rather than after the protests had escalated.
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