Killing of Dartmouth businessman by police triggers uproar
-residents protest, call for credible probe
The policeman alleged to have fatally shot Dartmouth businessman Orin Boston yesterday morning has been placed under close arrest even as dozens of irate villagers manned protest lines and blocked the road in the area last evening.
Incensed villagers from the Essequibo Coast community vowed to continue the protests despite assurances by Police Commissioner (ag) Nigel Hoppie that there would be an independent probe of the death. Boston’s widow has alleged that he was shot in bed after the police broke down the door to their bedroom. It remains unclear what the police were looking for and why that level of force was employed in the operation.
Hoppie made the disclosure of the close-arrest yesterday afternoon during a virtual press conference held to update the media on the incident. He was accompanied by Deputy Commissioner of Operations (ag) Clifton Hicken, Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum and Head of the Special Branch, Rabindranauth Budhram.
Boston, 29, of Hoppie Street, Dartmouth, Essequibo was shot in his left arm at his home early yesterday morning.
The police in a statement said that ranks were conducting an anti-crime operation in Region Two at around 4.40 am during which they went to the home of Boston to conduct a search. During the search, the police said that there was a “confrontation” between Boston and the police resulting in him being shot. Boston was rushed to the Suddie Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Responding to questions from the media yesterday, Hicken said that the SWAT team was dispatched to Region Two on Tuesday. The team, he said consisted of one gazetted officer and eleven ranks. None of the ranks was equipped with a body camera.
Hoppie and Hicken said that the team was sent to the area based on intelligence received.
According to Hicken, the presence of the SWAT unit was “necessary” during the operation. “We said the SWAT was required, when the intel is telling us that the threat is at a high level and so intelligence will require the type of skillset and so with the
intel at the time, it was necessary,” Hicken told reporters.
Boston was shot with a rifle.
Hoppie explained that the operation commenced around 2 am yesterday in several villages within the region.
Prior to arriving at Boston’s, house, Hoppie told the media that two other homes were searched. He said the purpose of the search at Boston’s house was for ‘prohibited items’. Nothing was found, Hoppie confirmed. However, he noted that four persons including two murder suspects were arrested at Onderneeming.
Details surrounding the shooting of Boston remain sketchy. This includes how many ranks entered the house, what means was used to gain entry into Boston’s house, and whether any of the force’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) were breached.
Pressed for answers yesterday, Hoppie said these details will be determined in the investigation. “All that will come out of the investigation that is currently being conducted,” he said, while adding “if there is any breach while conducting the operation it will be part of the recommendation coming out of the investigation”.
Boston’s widow, Feona Boston yesterday told reporters that the police kicked down their back door, went into their bedroom and shot the businessman.
“My husband had showered and retired to bed. He did not even have on clothes when they went into the room kicked down the door and pointed the gun towards him, they shot his right arm, all I heard is a loud gunshot sound,” the wife said.
She said that ranks were all over the house with guns and her two children, ages 6 and 7, witnessed the entire ordeal.
“Everything just happened fast, I just see the men just come in just searching for things, no alert nothing, they ran out to my husband and just shot him. Right now I confused”, the wife said.
She added that immediately after shooting her husband, the police took him outside where they applied first aid on him.
“My husband was already lying helpless on the ground, he did die, his feet were cold, them deh shouting for the ranks to bring the black bag, my husband did not do anything wrong we got we business and we …sell alcohol beverages,” the wife said.
Terrified
Meanwhile, the sister of the deceased said she was terrified when the lawmen kicked her door down. She said that she was awakened by the loud sound. She said that they asked for her brother and she told them that he was living at another house.
“When I told them that they ran out. They rushed over (to the brother’s house) and then I heard a loud gunshot. Ow them kill meh brother, we didn’t even get to assist. When he reach hospital he dead”, the sister related. The sister said that the lawmen told her that she could not use her phone for recording or making contact with anyone.
Incensed residents of Dartmouth later came out in their numbers and barred persons from entering the village. Old tyres, old cars and other items were burnt in protest. They shouted slogans such as “black lives matters” and “police killing people”. The residents told the media that they were very angry at the way Boston was killed and they want justice. They said they will protest until they are given satisfaction.
The main public road leading to the Charity and Anna Regina area was blocked preventing workers from going to work. Many businessmen who were going to Charity had to turn back as residents made their anger clear. Firefighters and policemen were also prevented from entering the village.
Members of the public had to use alternative routes to get home last evening. Some used a backdam entrance to get home while others joined taxis to get home through the Westbury route. Many services in the Charity area were closed as workers could not access the area.
`No stone unturned’
Hoppie and Blanhum yesterday visited the region where they met with Boston’s relatives and residents of the area. During the visit, Hoppie said he assured that no stone will be left unturned during the investigation.
“Having listened to their story, I also reminded them that no stone is going to be left unturned and a comprehensive investigation would be done in this matter,” Hoppie told the media.
The investigation is being spearheaded by the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).
The Top Cop also related that during the visit, he and Blanhum inspected Boston’s home during which evidence were gathered.
“…Myself and the Crime Chief were there…we did make inspection of the scene and there are certain things that were identified which indicate that there was something which appears to be blood in the room where Mr Boston was shot and the crime scene unit would have taken possession of those items that we would have observed. Photographs were also taken,” Hoppie explained.
Up to yesterday afternoon, some of the roads in the area remained blocked.
“Even though members of the force are making stringent efforts to clear the roadway and take control of the situation, at this time the road remains blocked,” Hoppie said.
The police were up to yesterday making checks to determine whether Boston had any previous brushes with the law. However, Blanhum indicated that based on information gathered from detectives in the region, Boston was never prosecuted by the police.
Steps
Meanwhile, attorneys at law Nigel Hughes and Konyo Sandiford on behalf of the family listed a barrrage of investigative steps they expected the police to take.
The lawyers contended that several heavily armed policemen entered Boston’s home without a warrant while his family was asleep in the bedrooms of their home.
In a statement, the lawyers said that the armed officers first encountered Boston’s daughter who they removed from the house informing her that they wanted her father.
“Three armed officers then kicked open the bedroom door where Junior Orin Boston was lying in bed next to his wife unarmed. The armed policemen then shot Mr. Boston while he was lying in bed with his wife.
“His wife who was lying next to him thought she would have been shot next. As a result of the gunshot wound inflicted on Mr. Boston, the pillow and the bedsheet upon which he was lying were soiled with his blood”, the lawyers said.
After shooting Boston, the lawyers said that the police offficers removed his body from his bedroom and placed him on a concrete surface outside of the building. The police officers then left him there and returned to the house where they then carried out a search stating that they were looking for his identification documents.
After the search was concluded the police officers placed Boston’s body in a vehicle and took him to the hospital where he was pronounced
dead on arrival.
The lawyers said that the police force left behind the bloodied pillow and bed sheet which confirm the position of Boston at the time of the shooting. Hughes and Sandiford said that later in the day before any interview was conducted with the witnesses to the shooting of Boston or any of the persons who were present, the police issued a press release contending that there was a confrontation between Boston and officers of the Guyana Police Force.
“The immediate adoption of a hostile position by the Guyana Police Force by attributing to Mr. Boston acts of aggression which are contradicted by both the eye witnesses and the independent evidence discloses patent defensiveness and desire to conceal the true sequence of events.
“This rush to judgement by the Guyana Police Force immediately discloses the inherent
biases and predisposition which would render an independent investigation almost impossible”, the lawyers contended.
At a minimum they said that the family would expect that the following basic aspects of an investigation would have been conducted.
The dusting of the hands of the ranks on duty and the deceased for gun powder residue.
The examination of all footage from any body cameras which may have been carried by the police officers.
The taking into their possession of the pillow and the bed sheet.
Whether there was a warrant to search the home of Boston.
Whether any shells, warheads or other components of the projectile were recovered from the crime scene and the location from which it was retrieved.
On what intelligence did the police act when they determined to search the home of Boston.
What were the police exactly looking for when they attended the home of Boston.
What were the standard operating procedures deployed when they entered the bedroom of Boston without a warrant.
The trajectory of the bullet and the points of entry and exit of the bullet which killed Boston.
The lawyers said that Boston’s family is demanding an independent investigation into his killing by independent professional investigators with the appropriate contemporary forensic equipment and training.
PNCR
Meanwhile, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) expressed concern at the manner in which the early-morning operation, conducted by the Special Weapons and Tactics
Unit (SWAT), resulted in the killing of Boston.
“While we await the outcome of the investigation into Mr. Boston’s demise, as a nation we must not be quick to make assumptions nor cast judgement. However, experience has reminded us of the many sons who were forcibly taken from the hands of their mothers, fathers from their children, husbands abducted from their beds as they slept, families ripped apart and communities sent into mourning, by the actions of the Guyana Police Force under the last PPP’s administration. Our nation is still scarred from the actions of the Target Special Squad who was gunned down, on April 6, 2002, Shaka Blair, a 32 year old East Coast Demerara businessman.
“The PNCR calls on the Guyana Police Force and Government of Guyana to employ all necessary resources to ensure that this matter is treated with expedience and professionalism. A thorough investigation into the circumstances which led to Mr. Boston’s demise must be done and wherever there were breaches in the standard operational procedures of the Force, those responsible must face the law and the consequences”, the party said.