A Park Hill man says he is still trying to figure out why police shot him in the back at his home around 3 a.m. on Dec. 4.
Aldon Thomas, 22, said he was sleeping in the one-room concrete house in his grandparents’ yard at Coolie Hill (Villa Point), Park Hill when he heard knocking on the windows and door.
“When a do look out, is police,” Thomas said, adding that the two police officers broke off a window and saw him inside.
He said that the officer told him to come out of the house through the window.
Thomas said that he was wearing only two boxer shorts at the time and he complied with the officers’ instructions.
“By the time I go out, when I reach par dem dey, all me just heard bodow inna me back,” Thomas told iWitness News, meaning that the police shot him in the back.
He said the two police officers then dragged him to their vehicle, where a third officer, the driver, was waiting.
He said that after they left the area in the police vehicle, the officer told him to shut up or they would shoot him in the head.
“Stripe and thing pop outta me,” he said, meaning that his intestines were exposed as a result of the shot to his back.
Thomas said that he does not know the officers’ names but can recognise their faces. He said he had known one of the officers before the incident.
He said that the police officers took him to Georgetown Hospital and told the staff there that he had tried to run, but that was not the case.
“I ain’t make no attempt to run nor nothing. Ah just come out ah me window and go in the yard. Time ah reach out in the yard, ah badaw in me back.”
He said he underwent surgery for the gunshot injuries, and the doctors told him that his intestines had to be sutured.
Thomas says he works intermittently as a labourer, but he cannot work currently because of his injury.
“Doctor tell me ah cyar do no wuk because ah badly wounded,” he told iWitness News.
Of the police, he said: “Them put me back on me knees. Them nearly cripple me. The doctor tell me if the thing bin go cross one more me dead or cripple or something.”
Thomas told iWitness News that he had to visit the hospital every day for treatment.
He said he spent a week and two days in hospital and after he was discharged, police took him to the police headquarters in Kingstown.
He said he refused to give a statement and was later charged.
Thomas was taken before the Colonarie Magistrate’s Court last Thursday, Dec. 12, charged with making threats, criminal trespass, and aggravated burglary.
He was not allowed to plead to the aggravated burglary charge, an indictable offence and pleaded not guilty to the other two charges.
He was granted $4,000 bail and was ordered to surrender his travel documents and report to Colonarie Police Station once per week.
The matter was transferred to Serious Offences Court and on Friday, that court set the next hearing for March 23, 2020.
Thomas said he has reported the matter to his lawyer and will file a report with the Police Public Relations and Complaints Department in Kingstown.
We are only hearing the defendant’s side this time. When we hear the police side it will be a difficult decision for a judge because unfortunately the SVG Police do not have a reputation for being honest. They have an even worse reputation for beating and shooting suspects whether innocent or guilty.
Something has to be done to make improvements in the SVG Police. Most all the police know who the most corrupt officers are. In some cases there are small groups that look-out for eachother that are not on the “up and up”. Overall there is a sense in the force that your best chance of survival and promotion is based on being…”politically correct”…(figure out my my definition of that for yourself). That is possible the main reason for the bad character, performance and reputation of the SVG Police.
What is bvb really going on bbn in saint vincent with those police. They are not well trained like the ones we have here in the US.
The US has a high level of gross incompetent shootings as well, especially against black unarmed, harmless minority. So come again and no l am not in agreement with this individual being shot either. Wrong is wrong especially when the facts come out as they should.
I am so fed up of hearing comparisons to the USA, a country of 300 hundred million, a mega super power to a trying and evolving country such as ours. The only thing we have over the US is our climate. I am not at all condoning this alleged silly act by the police but what the force needs is a change manager maybe from the UK or Canada.
Because they are members of the commonwealth with mostly similar laws, to assist with making the SERVICE more compatible with modern crime fighting strategies, modern levels of customer service approaches, human rights education and high levels of crime fighting technology. The introduction of less lethal weapons like pepper spray and Tasers are very much needed as well and time enough to change the name from force to service.
Wow torrid allegation, if he was charged with burglary, where or whose property was he burglarising? Since when if the allegations are correct can you enter a man’s home without a warrant to arrest him? Poor soul he seems not to be able to express himself effectively. He does not seem to be able to withstand the rigor of cross examination if put on the stand.
Something doesn’t sound right If you were walking to the police how did you got shot in your back? But because someone is running and doesn’t have a weapon why you shooting them?
Backward to the bone, some Vincy people are. Incredible!
This is f**kery. Even if the man is a criminal a man running from custody is not a threat to be shot in the back like a dog, well sorry bt ya should not even shoot a dog in the back. these guys should be bought to justice. Who the hell train them??
Remember a few years ago when the police shot a homeless man in a derelict building in Kingstown. He was shot in the legs without any reason, the cowboy policeman, what happened to him, I cannot tell you.
But the police to shoot anyone in the back even if he tried to run is totally unacceptable. The man is not a murderer, not a rapist, not a danger to the public. So to shoot him if he runs is using excessive force. But as usual the police will protect their own.
For Ralph Gonsalves to stay quiet on this matter, could be interpreted as he approves of this kind of behaviour.
It would appear for the police to ask the man to come out through a window that they broke this was a premeditated conspiracy by the arresting officers to make it look as if they shot him whilst escaping through a window.
Even if the accused is the biggest ass in the world there can be no excuse for shooting him when there are other remedies available.
Remember how they shot a prisoner at the High Court who tried to escape through a toilet window?
This matter sounds like another “we will hunt them down until they exist no more” premeditated shooting.
Who originally said that I have forgotten?
SHEER CASE OF POLICE BRUTALITY
Those who enforce the criminal law know that a person ‘…running away from an officer,’ poses no threat to an officer in pursuit.
Apart from the account given by the injured man,irrespective of ‘…allegation or suspicion,’ the ‘…shooting in the back’ of an apparent unarmed and non-violent man, represents a clear and ‘…Sheer case of Police Brutality’ (using more force than reasonably necessary).
Obviously, it was an ‘..exit bullet wound’ that often left a ‘…small hole at point of entry’ and a shocking ‘…gaping wound on exit.’
These photographs confirmed it all.
Why not his ‘…lower limb’ to stop him from running having ‘…allegedly committed a known serious crime.’
Not for stealing a bunch of plantains though.
Taken to the threshold of professionalism, it border’s …Corruption.’
In the wider society, from a crime perspective, this is nothing short of ‘…Shooting With Intent To Murder.’
Thorough and independent investigations could see the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) so advising the Police high command.
I am so fed up of hearing comparisons to the USA, a country of 300 hundred million, a mega super power to a trying and evolving country such as ours. The only thing we have over the US is our climate. I am not at all condoning this alleged silly act by the police but what the force needs is a change manager maybe from the UK or Canada.
Because they are members of the commonwealth with mostly similar laws, to assist with making the SERVICE more compatible with modern crime fighting strategies, modern levels of customer service approaches, human rights education and high levels of crime fighting technology. The introduction of less lethal weapons like pepper spray and Tasers are very much needed as well and time enough to change the name from force to service.
He lucky he still have the chance to tell ah story
if you read the guys statement carefully he said that an officer told him to come out side by using the window of the said house where he was asleep,so in truth and in fact the police set up everything to make it look as if the guy was in someones house