Guyanese appointed NAACP President in Raleigh NC Calls on FBI to investigate case of Government misconduct

Jul 23, 2023 News

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By  Rehanna Ramsay

Kaieteur News – Guyana-born American activist, Dr. Mark Vasconcellos is leading the charge for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate a case of government misconduct following a series of shootings that happened in North Carolina in 2020.

Dr. Vasconcellos who was appointed President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Raleigh-Apex Branch in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, back in February, is requesting that the FBI investigates the case of Henderson Atwater, an African-American male who was arrested for his alleged involvement in the shootings.

Mr. Atwater was arrested in 2021. He is being accused of using a gun to shoot pellets into buildings and vehicles in Holly Springs, North Carolina on a number of occasions. The issue now is that while Mr. Atwater remains in custody for the past two and half years, even as one of the first witnesses to the shootings identified the suspect as a white person.

Dr. Vasconcellos explained that Mr. Atwater was charged with more than two dozen felony charges connected to the shootings.  “He faces more than 200 years in prison if he is convicted of all of the charges. He has already been sitting in jail for more than two and a half years with no trial,” Dr. Vasconcellos said.

According to Dr. Vasconcellos, law enforcement initially identified the suspect as a White man. He explained that video footage was obtained in late April of 2022 which shows the suspect as a white male driving an Audi car. Mr. Henderson Atwater is a Black male who drives a Volkswagen Jetta.

Additionally, the District Attorney’s Office did not supply Atwater’s Defense Team with video footage until April 2022, despite having it in their possession since the beginning of the investigation. As late as July 15, 2023, the Defense Team learned that the District Attorney’s Office withheld another piece of exculpatory video evidence that supports, to some extent, the allegations of law enforcement misconduct and an attempted cover-up.

Mr. Mark Finkelstein of the NAACP Raleigh-Apex Legal Redress Committee stated “The tenacious hard work of Mr. Atwater’s defense lawyers uncovered a series of unconscionable acts by local law enforcement.  Dr. Vasconcellos and the NAACP have in turn worked resolutely to shed light on the wrongful acts uncovered and obtain Mr. Atwater’s pre-trial release.”

Meanwhile, a local news station in Raleigh reported that Atwater’s defense team tried to file a motion to dismiss the charges in March 2023 due to his Constitutional rights being violated. The reason was that the State not only failed to produce key evidence for the investigation, but they also destroyed the evidence and claimed it could not be produced. In an unusual move, the court did not grant this motion. According to a local report, the Wake County District Attorney denies any intentional wrongdoing allegations in connection with Atwater’s case.

Mr. Atwater remains in jail to this day and maintains his innocence. According to Dr. Vasconcellos, this is a clear case of government misconduct that must be investigated in pursuit of the truth and to hold people accountable. “Innocent people, like Mr. Henderson Atwater, should not be incarcerated for crimes they did not commit,” he said.

This is not Dr. Vasconcellos’s first such case. In 2020, Dr. Vasconcellos helped Mr. Oscar Urbano, a Venezuelan worker who was being detained at the Vigilance Police Station, Guyana, get released from custody on charges that were eventually dropped. He is hoping to do the same for Mr. Atwater as the newly appointed President of the NAACP in Raleigh North Carolina.

Historically, the NAACP is known as the organization that fights injustice in America. The NAACP was the organization that helped to eliminate obstacles for people of color in America. Today, NAACP not only works to ensure people of color are registered to vote and have reliable transportation to their polling stations; but they also investigate cases where people in the community report discrimination and civil rights violations.

The NAACP is the oldest and largest civil rights organization in America known to fight against any type of discrimination. The NAACP’s mission is “to achieve equity, political rights, and social inclusion by advancing policies and practices that expand human and civil rights, eliminate discrimination, and accelerate the well-being, education, and economic security of Black people and all persons of color.”

This year’s annual NAACP National Convention will be held in Boston, Massachusetts from July 28 -August 1.  Some of the speakers at this event include Vice President Kamala Harris and Past First Lady and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. The current President and CEO of the National NAACP is Mr. Derrick Johnson.

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• Activist, American, Dr. Mark Vasconcellos, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Rehanna Ramsay

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