Who were the five officers that uplifted weapons but were not recorded as traveling to Linden?

Sep 30, 2012 Letters

Dear Editor,
I don’t know how many Guyanese have been following the hearings being undertaken by the Commission of Inquiry into the July 18 police shootings in Linden, but I hope most that have been following, are aware of the questions arising from testimonies of police ranks so far.
First, acting Top Cop, Mr. Leroy Brummel, appeared before the commission and stated that there was no justification for the police shooting.
When former Commander of the E&F Division Clifton Hicken appeared before the commission, he said reports he received indicated that police were facing a life-threatening situation from protesters at Linden on July 18 when three persons were killed.
Next up before the commission was Assistant Superintendent (ASP) Patrick Todd, commander of the Tactical Service Unit (TSU) ranks who were deployed to Linden on July 18. He denied that his men fired on protesters resulting in the deaths of three persons and injury to several others.
Todd told the Commission that he was the only policeman he knew of that fired any weapon in keeping with Standard Operating Procedures – a CP riot gun which fired tear smoke cartridges and shotguns- on July 18. Here are his direct quotes, as reported by the media:
“I then take the CP riot gun from Constable George and fire one cartridge tear smoke towards the Linmine area, shooting it towards the ground to take off the velocity.”
“I then took a CS hand grenade (tear smoke) from Constable McBean and throw it in the same direction,”
“I then took Constable Parker’s shotgun and fired one shot to the ground to take off the velocity so as to scare the persons away.”
“I continued to throw another canister of tear smoke and I heard a loud explosion coming from the centre of the bridge and blazing fire. I then informed Senior Superintendent Hicken that the bridge was on fire.”
Todd said he continued to alternate the use of tear smoke and the shotguns with him being the only person from the TSU ranks firing. When asked if there were other police besides TSU ranks in the vicinity Todd responded yes but stated that he did not see any of them fire a weapon. He added that he did not order anyone else to fire.
Question: If there were other police besides TSU ranks in the vicinity, but he did not see any of them fire their weapons, who were the other police?
Then there was Sergeant Aubrey Bowman, who issued the arms and ammunition to the seventeen ranks and an officer on July 18. He told the commission that he issued four .38 revolvers with six rounds each; two 9mm pistols with 17 rounds each; four FN automatic rifles with 40 rounds each; two CP riot guns with 10 cartridges each; four shotguns with 10 cartridges each; and 20 tear smoke grenades.
That’s a total of 16 weapons that were issued to 17 ranks and an officer, and it is either my arithmetic skill is bad or Bowman should be recalled to clarify the number of weapons he issued. According to Kaieteur News (“Police books show no record of five specific armed ranks deployed to Linden,” September 26), based on police records presented to the commission, of the twenty-three named Tactical Services Unit (TSU) ranks that were deployed to Linden, the names of five officers who uplifted firearms were not recorded as actually being sent to the mining town during the electricity tariffs protest.
What were the names of the five who uplifted arms but were not recorded as travelling to Linden? Can they or any superior account for their whereabouts after they uplifted their weapons? Did anyone do ballistic tests on the guns of these five upon return of their weapons to the police ammunitions storage facility? Did anyone interview them?
Emile Mervin

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Who were the five officers that uplifted weapons but were not recorded as traveling to Linden?

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