Dear Editor,
One hit-and-run, two men dead. The sequence of events thereafter twisted, turned, slid sideways, then returned. Steps got tangled. The missteps compounding. My thinking. Follow this timeline.
The initial police report of the hit-and-run crime stated that it occurred on the Beehive Railway Embankment Public Road, East Coast Demerara at around 23:00hrs on Sunday, June 28th. Note that time, date, and location, please. Note also that I labeled the hit-and-run a crime, and not an accident. When a driver hits an object and leaves whatever it is to die like a dog the road, accident doesn’t apply. Not in my book. Following the Sunday June 28th fatal hit-and-run, the police visited a driver living at Unity, ECD. The date of that first visit is unclear. The driver happened to be a Police Corporal. He admitted to an accident at Unity (not Beehive), and on Monday June 29th at 21:20hrs (almost 22.5 hours later). His vehicle had damage consistent with an accident. Following this exchange, the two senior policemen left. Why? Would they have done so if the driver was not a police rank? Would that step to depart have taken place, if an unknown, unconnected civilian was involved in a deadly hit-and-run? It’s a little off-kilter, to put matters mildly. It troubles more, perplexes less.
Upon receiving additional information, the same two policemen returned on July 2nd to the driver residing at Unity. His vehicle was retrieved, tested in his presence, and discovered to have suspected bloodstains. The police corporal was then arrested. This is bizarre. Look at the dates involved: 1) deadly accident on Sunday, June 28th; 2) first police visit to Unity [date not stated]; 3) damaged vehicle observed on that first visit; 4) police left without vehicle or driver; 5) police receives new information; 6) police revisits driver at Unity and both he and the vehicle travel to the Cove and John station on Thursday, July 2. Suspected bloodstains on vehicle discovered then. Driver detained.
This is unbelievable. It took almost four days for seasoned members of the Guyana Police Force to take the actions that should have occurred in the first place. There is a damaged vehicle. There is admission of a collision. There are two dead men. And there are missing pieces that the police look at, hear about, and then leave alone. Upon seeing the damage and hearing of an ‘accident’, the police should have moved immediately. At least, that vehicle had to be held for purposes of evidence gathering. It wasn’t. To use exceptional discretion, make a hard (extreme) judgement call, I may have left the driver in place momentarily. It’s surprising that he let the vehicle in question hang around untouched for so long. I chalk this up to a couple of different elements.
First, he did have an accident per the disclosures he made. Second, it was a fender-bender, immaterial. Third, there was minor injury, which explains the suspected bloodstains. Fourth, the matter was settled privately. Therefore, that’s all that there is to it, and that’s should be the end of all interest from anyone. True. But up to a point only. What if none of what I just laid out didn’t occur in that manner? Hence, false. Was the police corporal driver so unconscious about the gravity of the situation that he just went about his business in the usual fashion? Or, that he had some idea, but was that uncaring, that arrogant. Nobody knows. I certainly don’t.
What I detect is that the police didn’t operate with all the due diligence needed. Nor acted with the degree of intensity, that a fatal situation demanded. It troubles. Last, there may be attendant factors that overlay this whole deadly affair. Those could help the family and others put two and two together. Where it leads, it leads.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
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