A 33-year-old man is in hospital with a gunshot injury to his spine after police shot him in the back in the Cedars-Mt Grennan area Saturday morning.
Police spokesman Superintendent of Police Junior Simmons told iWitness News on Saturday that his office is aware of the incident and might have further comments at another time.
However, a source told iWitness News that the police officers involved admitted to shooting the 33-year-old man but said they did so because he drove a vehicle towards them.
The man’s wife told iWitness News on Saturday that she learnt of her husband’s injury when she woke up around 7 a.m. and saw several missed calls on her phone.
She said that when she returned the call, it was the Georgetown Hospital informing her that her husband had been shot and that she should go immediately to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital.
She told iWitness News that her husband told her that he was parked in a rented vehicle at the side of the road in the Mt Grennan area around 1:30 a.m.
She said someone else was in the vehicle but she is not sure who the person was.
The wife said her husband told her he saw a vehicle pull up, shining its bright lights into his vehicle.
As a result, he did not see when men exited the vehicle but he later realised that they were at his car pointing guns at him, the wife said.
“He could not see any police uniform and when they came up to the vehicle, they did not identify themselves at all,” she told iWitness News.
“Naturally, I think any person’s reaction, you see a person come up to your car with guns pointed at you, will drive off.
“He drove off and they started shooting indiscriminately and he was shot in his spine. He lost control of the vehicle and ran off the road,” she told iWitness News.
She said the police then opened the door of the vehicle her husband was driving and identified themselves as police officers by showing their badges.
“But they identified themselves as police after they shot the man,” she told iWitness News.
“That is absolutely ridiculous. You do not shoot someone without identifying yourself as police. There are so many other things they could have done to intercept, to stop him or whatever. We are business owners. We are upstanding citizens,” she said.
She said doctors told her that her husband was shot “in the spine” and gave a prognosis but she did not want to disclose it to the media at that point.
“We are exploring all of the options. The neurosurgeon had a conversation with me already but that is not something I have spoken to [him] about,” she told iWitness News but said he cannot move his lower body.
She said that the police have not taken a statement from her husband and that she has had an “off-the-record” conversation with a police officer.
“The man was just in his vehicle chilling, minding his business. He did not know it was police until after the fact. As far as he knows, men approached his vehicle with guns. That was the first thought,” she said.
Update: The wife of the injured man subsequently asked iWitness News to remove their name from the original version of this article for privacy reasons.
Further, a subscriber sent us the following video after this story was published.
Hmmmm! Horrible incident! Did the man really drive the vehicle at the police? Is that really the truth? Is it true that the police faied to identify themselves? Question the other passenger who was with the victim.
We live in a society where everyone is on the edge as it pertains to crime. The police should have identified themselves. Thanks to the Most High you are still alive. You should get a lawyer and seek some form of justice.
Police need to stop shooting at people whom they confront in vehicles- especially when they (the police) were not shot at. An unarmed man gets his spine shattered! Very terrible! If someone is trying to escape after the police stops them, why not shoot at the wheels rather than trying to kill him/her? Will the unarmed victim get justice? Not sure about that- especially since St. Vincent is not a real place!
This story is fishy Cedars is nowhere near Mt.Greenan and yet a report was made of a burglary in Cedars and the officers found a car parked suspiciously in Mt Greenan.
Makes no sense whatsoever.
These thugs do this all the time because they know they will not be held accountable. The biggest gang is cops. What happen to the guy they ran over? No accountability.
Hmmmmm. Someone drove a vehicle towards u
U shoot and he gets hit from behind??
People have been complaining of police harassment after hours too much
These matters need to be investigated thoroughly
Question the mysterious passenger
A man with learning difficulty , who has no parents and lived in an abandoned house. After 9pm, he was walking his way home when he was met by these men in uniform, he reported that he was asked where he was going, he said he told hem that he was going home, he said that they slapped him and some food that was given to him by a villager, they took it and searched it then throw it away in a cemetry below the road..theres a church next to this cemetry. Abba Father, forgive these
and bless them.
So he drove a vehicle towards them and got shot in the BACK?? Make it make sense.
These police need to be on leave without pay and an investigation conducted against them.
Young man, bring a criminal suit against the police who shot you in the BACK. Then bring a civil suit against the COP, the individual officer(s), the Government or whoever else you could legally sue. Find a good lawyer who is unafraid to represent you.
SO ANGRY!!!
So, he was shot in the back while he was driving away? If that is the case. Where was the eminent threat posed to the police by the civilian after he drove pass the officer? It can be argued that it was self defence if the officer shot towards the car that was coming at him but once the car is already pass there was zero threat to the officers. Therefore, there was no need to shoot at the vehicle. Additionally, the offense under investigation is not a grave one. There should be policies for officers when using firearms and not just word of mouth. Always remember that the public is there to assist the police. With the high crime rate the police need the public trust. Therefore, treat the public fairly.
It may be a great idea for the Chief Commissioner of police and any disciplinary or counseling body in the police service to have some meetings with the relevant
policemen, especially with those who are in the habit of harassing people without any just cause. Remind them of how they ought to treat civilians.
Brutality is not the way to go. The more policemen ill-treat people, the less likely the public will cooperate with them when they need the assistance of the public.
The narratives provided as why the civilian got shot did not add up. It sounds fishy by all accounts which respect ro what was alleged to have occurred . There is a missing link, someone is trying to save their hide in the art of cover up or deceiving the public. We have heard of alleged police misconduct.
Recently Junior Constable, Stroyson Soleyn was indicted in an alleged rape case. Similarly, Iwitness news covered a story in which it was alleged that a police Constable loaned his service firearm to his friend in an intimidation case. The public has no faith in the police and mus therefore take their narratives with a grain of salt.
The police Complaint Bureau, an Agency which is charged with examing police conduct, is an institution where police investigate police. One can therefore question its objectivity or impartiality.