Cops, relatives give conflicting accounts of vendor’s shooting

Nov 29, 2019 News

Police are insisting that a beverage vendor who was shot in the leg last Sunday had attacked ranks with bottles and a cutlass.

The wounded Royston Evans

But the man’s relatives claim that he was defending himself after being gun-butted, and was unaware that his assailants were cops.
Royston Evans, 25, Charity Squatting Area, Essequibo Coast, was shot in the left leg during a confrontation with police ranks at the Charity Centre Ground.
A car and bike show was reportedly being held there.
Evans has been admitted to the Suddie Hospital. His relatives said they are upset that police had initially taken the vendor, who suffers epileptic fits and was in pain, to the Suddie Police Station to give a statement.
The relatives and victim’s version of events is that he had gone to the Charity Centre Ground to sell beverages last Saturday evening.
Evans, who had also drank a few beers, said that he was relieving himself in a section of the ballfield some hours later, when someone came up behind and pushed their hands in his pockets.
The individual, who was in plainclothes, identified himself as policeman, and allegedly told Evans that he was looking for ‘weed.’
Evans has reportedly said that he was unaware that the individual and another man accompanying him were policemen.
The vendor reportedly then picked up and broke two bottles, and it was then that someone struck him on the head with a firearm.
An individual who relatives recorded, stated that Evans then went to the bar and collected “a set of beers,” with the intention of throwing them at the man who had struck him.
After being persuaded not to retaliate, Evans then left, but returned with a cutlass to confront his alleged assailant.
“He come back waving the cutlass and saying he want to see the man who hit him,” an individual who relatives recorded stated. “He wasn’t even near the police.”
It was then that one of the plainclothes ranks shot Evans. There are allegations that the shooter discharged at least four rounds on the crowded ballfield.
Some individuals who claimed that they were present, said that the ranks then drove away, leaving the wounded Evans on the ground.
However, a senior official said that one of the ranks called an ambulance, and Evans was taken to the Suddie Police Station.
On Wednesday, Evans was discharged from hospital, and police took him to the Suddie Police Station to give a statement. He was unable to sit, and ranks placed him on a mattress on the station floor. It was then that he suffered an epileptic seizure, and had to be taken back to the hospital.
Police have taken statements from relatives in relation to the ongoing investigation.

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