Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC) Hon. Khemraj Ramjattan, MP, agrees that police officers breached the Guyana Police Force’s (GPF) “Standard Operating Procedures” (SOP) in the recent deadly Mahaica car chase. The smash up which claimed the lives of Christopher Bhagwandat, 21, of Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara (ECD) and Sheereda Persaud, 16, of Bath, West Coast Berbice (WCB) was described by the AFC leader as “preventable”.
Appearing on our affiliate social media talk show ‘In The Ring’, the AFC leader was asked by host Sherod Duncan to comment on the Police’s “Standard Operating Procedures” and whether it was followed. In response the AFC leader said: “If you feel as a policeman in hot pursuit you are going to endanger the lives of other members of the public, you have to back off to prevent that danger. You must not endanger any other member of the public.”
He further questioned the reason for such dangerous driving in the first place. “Was it that they had a bomb in the car that they were going to Parliament with the bomb? It could not be,” the AFC Leader stressed. Ramjattan is blaming speed as a major cause of the accident. He drew attention to the speed at which the police vehicle was being driven. “Look at the speed that they were driving and if you know that that front car was driving that fast, you do not engage at a bridge which gets narrow. You back off knowing very well that if the front car was to hit the opposing traffic you are going to crash up.”
In a press statement, the GPF said preliminary investigations revealed that police Corporal David and Constable Griffith were conducting traffic duties on the Zealand Public Road, Mahaicony, ECD, when Constable Griffith stopped Bhagwandat’s car. Bhagwandat, the statement said, pulled to the left side of the road and as a rank approached his vehicle, he drove off at a fast rate. As such, police pick-up, PAB 3143, which was passing, was immediately informed and they pursued Bhagwandat’s car. The Force’s vehicle was driven by Corporal Carmichael. He was accompanied by three other ranks: Constables Tucker, Johnson and Sam.
According to Corporal Carmichael, as they were pursuing the vehicle on the Mahaica Bridge, the driver pulled right and collided with the police vehicle, which collided with the bridge rail and both the Force’s vehicle and PNN 8852 collided with canter vehicle, GJJ 9151, which was proceeding in the opposite direction. Sheereda Persaud, a former Youth Parliamentarian, who was the Minister of Home Affairs at that forum, was laid to rest on Saturday, January 5, 2022, according to Muslim rights.
