Cop mysteriously shot during high-speed chase

Sep 04, 2014 News

---

The practice of plainclothes police ranks operating in unmarked vehicles allegedly backfired early yesterday morning, resulting in a constable receiving gunshot wounds after a high-speed chase with another vehicle that started on the West Bank of Demerara and ended at Peter’s Hall on the East Bank.
The Constable, whose name was given as Leroy English, is presently a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital, nursing injuries to his right hand and foot.
The incident occurred when the police tried to intercept a vehicle driven by a young city businessman, Gerry Da Silva, and were led on a high speed chase across the Demerara Harbour Bridge to the East Bank where they finally confronted the driver.
Although shots were fired during the chase, it is not yet clear how English sustained his injuries and there are suggestions that he was wounded by friendly fire, since the young businessman denied shooting at the chasing vehicles and no weapon was found on him or in his vehicle which is impounded along with his father’s in the Brickdam Police Station compound.
Police in a brief press statement said, that they are investigating the circumstances surrounding an incident in which Police Constable Leroy English was shot and injured to his right hand and foot on the Eccles Public Road, EBD.
It all started around 22:30 hours when Gerry Da Silva, 18 who owns a sports bar at the corner of Hadfield and Smyth Streets in Georgetown, went to drop home his girlfriend at Uitvlugt on the West Coast of Demerara.
On his way back to the city, Da Silva who was accompanied by a friend, Ricardo Moore, observed three Toyota AT 212 motor cars (one yellow and two silver) in front of him, being driven in a zig-zag manner.
Convinced that the drivers were drunk, Da Silva proceeded behind them with caution waiting for the opportunity to overtake, but the cars kept blocking his path, and one of them almost collided with his vehicle when he tried to do so.
In a statement to investigators, Da Silva claimed that eventually he saw a man in the back seat of the yellow car which was the last of the three cars, signaling him to pass. Da Silva proceeded to overtake the yellow car but his progress was blocked by the two other cars in front.
Then suddenly one of the silver cars turned across the road completely blocking his path, forcing him to stop. He claimed that the two other cars then cornered his vehicle and he became afraid when he saw that an occupant of one of the vehicles had emerged with a gun in his hand and was heading towards him.
The men in the other cars came out also and attempted to surround Da Silva’s vehicle.
According to Da Silva, the men were in civilian clothes and since they did not identify themselves, he rightfully assumed that he was about to be robbed or killed.
Sensing danger, Da Silva saw an opening and pressed his foot down on the accelerator and sped away, while the men discharged two rounds at him which missed their mark.
He drove across the Demerara Harbour Bridge, but only to encounter a barrier that blocked his path.
At this stage he telephoned his father, Euclid Da Silva, and told him that some unknown men were following him and they were shooting at his vehicle. His father advised him to keep driving, but by then the men had caught up with him and one of them was knocking the passenger side window with his gun.
Again he became afraid and drove through the barrier, speeding away towards the city, and again the men followed.
Da Silva again made contact with his father and by this time his father had reached the Demerara Harbour Bridge, so the young man decided to turn back to get his father, with the men still in hot pursuit.
More shots were fired by the men in the pursuing cars, none of which hit Da Silva’s vehicle.
When he eventually reached his father, the men came up and discharged three rounds into the air.
When the young man’s father confronted them, one of the men pointed a gun to his chest, while another choked him from behind. Even up to then the men did not identify themselves as policemen.
When the young Da Silva went to his father’s assistance, he was set upon by one of the men who floored him with several cuffs to his face.
By then, one of the men who probably recognized Da Silva and his father cautioned his colleagues and urged them to leave the scene.
Da Silva and his father eventually made their way to the nearest police station to report the matter but to their utter surprise, they were promptly detained and were only released late yesterday afternoon after the intervention of attorneys at law Latchmie Rahamat and Peter Hugh.
According to Rahamat, up to late yesterday they were still not certain if the men who attacked Da Silva were policemen, even though the wounded constable English told this newspaper that he did identify himself with his police identification card during the confrontation.
“All of their movements were consistent with an armed robbery and we are now surprised to hear that a policeman was shot,” the attorney told this newspaper yesterday afternoon.
She said that Da Silva’s hands were swabbed and no gunpowder residue was found to suggest that he had fired a weapon.
The young man’s father is obviously upset at the police endangering his son’s life.
“These people were in taxis and they were drunk. If I didn’t turn up, they might have killed my son. They said they were working with the commander over the river.
It was the grace of God that my son did not get shoot,” a livid Euclid Da Silva told Kaieteur News.
Concerns have been raised by citizens that persons in unmarked vehicles claiming to be policemen have been engaged in criminal activities. Even persons in police uniforms are reported to be involved in armed robbery.
A senior police official, when contacted for a comment on yesterday’s incident, informed that the force will have to review the operations of its undercover ranks who operate in unmarked vehicles.
“They are not supposed to intercept. They are supposed to do surveillance and contact the established anti-crime patrols to intercept,” the police official explained.
He said that the Force’s internal investigation arm, the Office of Professional Responsibility, is presently investigating the matter.

---

---