Mother of slain teen motorcyclist cries out for justice

Jun 27, 2026 News

(Kaieteur News) – The grief-stricken mother of 16-year-old Altaf King is pleading for justice following the controversial death of her only son, as relatives, friends, and community members demand a thorough and impartial investigation into what many are calling a case of police brutality.

King, a former student of Skeldon Line Path Secondary School and a young mason learning his trade, lost his life on Thursday evening under circumstances that have sharply divided official accounts from eyewitness testimony, igniting public outrage across the Corentyne region.

According to the Guyana Police Force, King, of Eliza Mary Race Course, Corentyne, was riding his motorcycle and attempted to flee officers pursuing him in a force-assigned vehicle. Police say he struck a utility pole and sustained fatal injuries. He was transported to the No. 75 Village Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Mother of slain teen motorcyclist cries out for justice

Dead: 16-year-old Altaf King

However, scores of eyewitnesses who gathered at the scene tell a starkly different story. They allege that it was the pursuing police vehicle that struck King’s motorcycle, sending him crashing into the pole — and that officers did little to help him afterward.

For Padmini Megnauth, Thursday began like any other day. Before leaving for work, she reminded her son to be careful on the roads. Hours later, her phone rang.

“I get a phone call from his aunt; she was asking me if I know that my son get knock down,” Megnauth recounted in a tearful interview with Kaieteur News. “I told her no, and I asked her when, where. She said she don’t know, and she don’t know if he is alive.”

Her husband rushed her to the No. 75 Village Hospital, where a security guard directed them to the emergency section.

“When I go in, I see my son lying motionless on the bed. He foot bruk, he neck bruk, blood was all over his head. I asked the doctor if he is alive, he said no. I started to scream,” she recounted.

Megnauth said multiple witnesses corroborated her belief that the police deliberately drove into her son. “The eyewitness saying that my son was riding going up the street, and the police chase him with speed and lash him into the post, and the post crack in two,” she said. “They come out the car that they lash he with, peep, and they go back in the car and drive and go at the station. They come back with another vehicle and they pick he up and they throw he in the van like some dead dog.”

She believes her son fled out of fear of being caught riding without a licence — a moment of panic that, by her account and those of witnesses, cost him his life.

As news of King’s death spread rapidly through the community, anger boiled over. Residents converged on the scene, setting materials ablaze to block the Princetown Public Road in Corriverton, bringing traffic to a standstill in a raw expression of grief and fury.

Several opposition political parties joined the chorus of condemnation, calling for an immediate and transparent investigation and expressing deep concern over the conduct of the officers involved.

The Guyana Police Force has confirmed that its Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) has launched a formal investigation into the incident. Minister of Home Affairs Oneidge Waldron in a statement Thursday evening, assured that a thorough probe would be conducted. She urged citizens to await the findings and refrain from further disruptive activity.

For Megnauth, however, official assurances ring hollow without accountability. She wants answers — and justice.

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Altaf King, motorcyclist, police brutality, Skeldon Line Path Secondary School

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