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Shooting death of drug rehab counsellor…Alleged ‘killer cop’ detained, refuses to give statement

Sep 17, 2011 News

 

 

 

The lance corporal who has been fingered in Thursday’s brutal killing of drug rehabilitation counsellor Ralph Turpin, 54, has turned himself in for questioning.
An official said that the rank, who is attached to the West Demerara Division, turned up at the Brickdam Police Station around 16:00 hrs and was detained after being grilled by several senior police investigators.
Kaieteur News understands that the rank told investigators that he is ‘confused’ about the allegations being put to him concerning Turpin’s death.
According to a source, the accused rank refused to give a statement and told the investigators that he would give a written one “in his own time.”
An official said that the detained lance corporal is to be placed on an identification parade within a few days.
Kaieteur News was told that investigators confiscated the rank’s 9mm pistol and also had the rank’s hands swabbed for traces of gunpowder residue.
However, it is unclear whether the clothing he was wearing at the time of the shooting is also being checked for gunpowder residue.
Police officials had reportedly spent several futile hours attempting to locate the rank after eyewitnesses identified him as the shooter.
Meanwhile, Kaieteur News understands that an Assistant Commissioner of Police who was allegedly at the scene when Turpin was shot has presented himself for questioning at CID Headquarters, Eve Leary.
However, a close female relative of the official, who was also allegedly at the scene, has still not been questioned.
According to sources, the detained lance corporal was first seconded to the Finance Division. He was then transferred to the CID Narcotics Branch. However, he was reportedly transferred from the Narcotics Division to the East Coast of Demerara after failing a polygraph test.
The rank was subsequently transferred to ‘D’ Division.
Turpin, 54, was shot twice in his head at point blank range when he intervened as a peacemaker during a heated argument between two groups of people who had gone to buy food outside the Stabroek Market at around 03:00 hours.
Turpin was formerly attached to the Phoenix Drug Rehabilitation Centre at Mon Repos on the East Coast of Demerara, and ran another halfway house, at his 25 Agriculture Road, Mon Repos residence.
According to reports, Turpin and a few friends had gone to the Stabroek Market area to buy food after a night out when the incident occurred.
Lesley Spooner, who was with Turpin and the other friends, recounted that she was in the process of purchasing the food from a roadside stall, when another woman who was also buying food started an argument with her.
She alleged that the woman who started the argument was brandishing a gun.
Spooner told this newspaper that one of her friends, Karen Busby, who was Turpin’s female companion, was desperately trying to cool things down.
According to her, both the man and woman were waving guns, saying, “y’all don’t know who y’all f…ing with.”
She claimed that the man with the gun struck down Busby with his hand and this led to Turpin who was sitting in the car, intervening. “I just hear Ralph say ‘you don’t have to do that’ and then it was, Pow! Pow!” Spooner recalled. According to her, the man also pointed his gun at her head and pulled the trigger, but the weapon apparently either malfunctioned or was empty. She said that the shooter and the woman then jumped into a car and sped away.
There are reports that the shooter and his accomplices were heavily under the influence of alcohol, having just left a popular city bar.

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