Teen shot in mouth…There will be no cover-up – Justice Kennard

May 14, 2014 News

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Chairman of the Police Complaints Authority, Justice Cecil Kennard, has declared that the police cannot cover-up the matter involving a Cadet Officer who shot a 15-year-old boy in his mouth three weeks ago.

His declaration came a few minutes before the police announced that the file on the matter which was prepared by the Force’s Office of Professional Responsibility, following intense investigations, had been forwarded to him.
“The Police Office of Professional Responsibility has completed their investigations into the matter involving 15-year-old Alex Griffith who was shot in his mouth by a policeman.
The file has been forwarded to the Chairman of the Police Complaints Authority today Tuesday May 13, 2014,” the police said in a press release which was issued yesterday afternoon.
But, as has now become customary, it would appear that the Police Force is being less than truthful on the matter, since Justice Kennard in a subsequent telephone conversation following the police press release, said that he had not received the file.
“I left my office at about five o’clock (pm) and I did not receive any file. If my Secretary had received it, she would have brought it to me immediately,” Justice Kennard told Kaieteur News, in response to a query about the police’s statement.
There have been expressions from sections of a suspicious general public that the force is attempting a cover-up given the length of time that investigators are taking on the matter.
“There will be no cover-up…They (police) can’t cover this up. I will look at the evidence and if the policeman is to be charged, he will be charged.”
“How can they cover-up this?” Justice Kennard, a former Chancellor of the Judiciary asked.
The police had asked the public to have a little patience with regards to the matter.  A senior officer had explained that there was no deliberate delay in the investigation, adding that there is a specific process that has to be followed.
“Once a police officer is involved, the procedure dictates that the file on the matter is taken to the Chairman of the Police Complaints Authority and then the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is obtained,” the officer said.
He explained that since the investigating ranks had to wait three days after the incident to interview the victim because he couldn’t speak, the investigation took a few days longer.
“He is the main witness. We would be happy to get this out of our hands and into the court, but there is a procedure that has to be followed,” the police source said.
Kaieteur News understands that another delay resulted from queries that the police had about the medical report.
According to a source, the police had sought some clarification from the doctor who had prepared the report on the document, but their request did not yield any fruit.
“The doctor reportedly told them that his report was self-explanatory,” a source said.

They were advised to write the Chief Executive Officer of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, Michael Khan, to facilitate the explanation.  But when this newspaper contacted Khan, he indicated that he had received no such request from the Guyana Police Force.
“So apparently they did not need the clarification after all,” the source added.
Last week, Marcel Griffith, the mother of the shot 15-year-old, made it clear that she will not sit idly by and allow her son’s case to be stretched out like the one involving Colwyn Harding.
Alex Griffith was dragged from his home by a party of policemen headed by a Cadet Officer and taken to another location where a gun was placed in his mouth and a round discharged.
The bullet exited behind the teenager’s left ear. Fortunately it does not appear that it damaged any major organ in his head.  The callous act by the Cadet Officer was described by the teen as similar to Russian roulette.
His mother had told members of the media that she is not satisfied with the pace of the investigations nor is she pleased with the way she and her son are being handled by the police administration.
“I’m not getting anywhere. I’m just hearing and hearing… and nothing is happening. I have a son who is sick, I don’t know whatever will happen to him,” Marcel Griffith said.
Her position was supported by a number of persons who joined her and her son in protest outside the Office of the Commissioner of Police last Thursday. She is upset that instead of the Cadet Officer facing the court, she is being bombarded with telephone calls from persons offering money to have the matter settled.
“It making me feel like everything just going down the drain like that. I ain’t getting no sort of justice. At least money can’t buy my child, because no money worthy of my child, none! Justice is the issue that I’m looking forward to,” Griffith declared.
But justice almost eluded her since there were attempts to cover for the Cadet Officer.
A usually reliable source at the Office of Professional Responsibility told this newspaper that their investigations unearthed some damning evidence that a senior officer had issued instructions to ranks at the Mahaica Police Station, where the Cadet Officer was stationed, to alter records to reflect a different date when he uplifted the firearm that was used to shoot the teenager.
It is now anyone’s guess as to when the file will reach the Director of Public Prosecutions. But given the utterances of Justice Kennard, the matter should be expedited in a manner that will ensure that justice is served.

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