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Death of Guyanese brings changes in Barbados
The avoidable death of Guyanese, Brenda Belle, has made so great an impact on Barbadian society that changes in police responses to domestic violence reports are being implemented even before her burial.
From third left, President of the National Organisation of Women, Marilyn Rice-Bowen, Brenda Belle’s friend Sharie Goodman, and past President of the Business and Professional Women’s Club, Nalita Gadajar, at the front of Saturday night’s candle light vigil.
The most recent reaction to Belle’s demise at the chops of her cutlass-wielding estranged husband has seen Police Commissioner Darwin Dottin announcing over the weekend the formation of a Family Conflict Unit, staffed by specially trained officers to deal with incidents involving spouses and members of the same family.
“It is sad that a death had to occur before it was taken seriously … It is an unacceptable practice in Barbados,” YWCA President Andrea Taylor, told the island’s leading newspaper, the Nation Monday.
Prior to being hunted down and chopped to death, allegedly by her estranged husband on Tuesday, April 30, Brenda Belle, on Saturday April 27, suffered a cut to her arm during an altercation with the knife-wielding man at a Fairchild Street downtown hangout spot, popular among Guyanese.
Close friends have complained that upon reporting the matter to police, she was sent to get a medical certificate of the injury, and there was no known attempt by law officers to bring the man in for questioning. She sought and received treatment at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
On Tuesday evening the man attacked Brenda Belle with a cutlass and chopped her to death outside the house of a friend she was visiting. Her house at another location was subsequently burnt down and police suspect the two incidents might be related.
The husband, Allan Belle, appeared in court on May 4 charged with murder and was remanded to prison until June 3.
Another change likely to be introduced by the Royal Barbados Police Force as a result of this gruesome killing is a stepped-up training programme for all officers in handling of future domestic conflicts.
Persons attending the candlelight vigil outside the house, behind which Brenda Belle was slain.
Acting Assistant Commissioner with responsibility for Crime, Mark Thompson, said that one of the aims of an internal police probe into how officers re-acted to Brenda Belle’s report of abuse and assault is to correct any faulty procedure.
“There may have been some deficiencies, we would have to check to see if the gap can be closed through training,” Thompson told the Nation newspaper on May 4, and added, “We have to complete a thorough investigation. If in carrying out those investigations it is shown that parts of the investigation did not meet the required standard, then we would deal with that issue”.
Meanwhile social activists, friends and other sympathizers walked in a candlelight vigil from Brenda Belle’s home – that was burnt down under suspicious circumstances after her murder – to the house and yard where she was slain. (Pictures by Rawle Culbard)
Brenda Belle’s friend, Herman Bentick (Left), at whose house she was staying when attacked by her estranged husband stands solemnly at the spot where she was slain.
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