Five police ranks were remanded to prison yesterday after they appeared before Chief Magistrate Judy Latchman at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court on a joint charge of murdering Gavin Kennard Douglas, called “Tallman”.
The accused are Sergeant Aarif Haniff, Corporal Bevis Lyle and Constables Wencill Marshall, Tiansay Thomas and Joel Newsum. The charge alleges that they murdered Gavin Kennard Douglas on October 31, 2026, at Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara.
Latchman read the charge to the five, who were not required to plead. She granted the prosecution’s application to transfer the matter to the Vreed-en-Hoop Magistrate’s Court, where it is scheduled to be called on November 17 at 9 am.
The court was told that Douglas’s family, represented by attorney Dexter Todd, was in the process of applying for a fiat to prosecute the case.
Attorneys Shamar Britton and Meshonn Persaud appeared for Haniff, while Yuborn Allicock and Calvin Brutus represented Thomas and Marshall. Kiswana Jefford appeared for Newsum and Travis Ferreira for Lyles.
After the hearing, relatives of Douglas shouted “murderers” at the accused as they were being escorted from the courtroom.
Douglas, 32, of Crane, West Coast Demerara, was reportedly stopped at a police roadblock while driving motor car PAL 2278 and taken to the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station in connection with an alleged robbery. He died after being detained there.
His mother, Colette Jones, an inspector attached to the Special Constabulary Department, told Kiskadee Watch on October 31 that no one had contacted her to say what had happened. She said she went to the station and found her son already “stretched out”.
Jones said she later heard at the West Demerara Regional Hospital, where her son was taken, that he had allegedly been tasered three times. She said the left side of his neck was swollen, his veins appeared swollen and he was foaming at the mouth. She questioned how much he could have resisted if his hands were cuffed behind his back.
Kiskadee Watch reported on November 2 that Government Pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh found that Douglas died from a brain haemorrhage caused by blunt trauma to the head. Police said Singh removed two Taser studs from Douglas’s body during the examination and that they were retained as exhibits. The Office of Professional Responsibility investigated the death.
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