The Guyana Police Force has announced that the Special Branch Police rank at the centre of the shooting death of Haslington youth Quindon Bacchus has been placed under close arrest as the Police Complaints Authority is set to investigate the incident.
The announcement came hours after hundreds of friends and family of Bacchus took to the Golden Grove public road just after midday today in protest calling for justice for him.
23-year-old Quindon Bacchus a father of one was shot dead by an identifiable policeman at Haslington on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) on Friday after allegedly attempting to sell an illegal firearm to a plain-clothes member of the Guyana Police Force.
According to an official statement from President of the Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID) Rickford Burke, the organization accused the police of giving two versions of the shooting.
First, the GPF issued a statement claiming that officers were conducting an operation when they observed Bacchus with a gun and pursued him. They claimed Bacchus opened fire at the ranks, who returned fire, hitting and killing Bacchus.
Within four hours of the first mendacious statement and facing backlash from the Haslington community which disputed their lies, the GPF issued a second press release alleging that Bacchus was the target of a Police intelligence operation.
The GPF claimed Bacchus was attempting to sell a gun to an undercover cop when he suddenly opened fire at Police. GPF said that officers returned fire, fatally shooting Bacchus. To corroborate this story, the GPF also alleged that the police recovered a .380 gun and a live round at the scene, Burke said.
(CGID) is demanding that the PPP government invite the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to investigate this reckless murder, as the GPF has neither the credibility nor integrity to investigate this Police involved shooting.
The family of Bacchus is also demanding an independent investigation into his murder. Attorney-at-Law Darren Wade who visited the family yesterday called on Guyanese to keep the family in their prayers and for the police to conduct an impartial probe.
More, In The Ring.
