An accident victim made strong allegations of vigilante justice on his dying bed against ranks of the Guyana Police Force.
Those allegations were vehemently denied on Sunday by Traffic Chief, Superintendent Dennis Stephen.
Collin Murphy called ‘Day Day’, a 22-year-old man who was employed at the Guyana Shore Base Inc (GYSBI) as a welder, died at the Georgetown Public Hospital on Friday last.
He was hospitalised at the institution for some six weeks following an accident outside the East La Penitence Police Station on the night of February 13, 2023.
Up to the time of his death, relatives claimed that the Guyana Police Force has refused to provide video evidence to put claims of a Police beating to rest.
In a video seen by the News Room, the injured man told relatives from his hospital bed that following the accident, he was immediately accosted and beaten by two ranks.
“I sure they lash me up in me head with a gun because if you watch me skin you will see it aint get nuff (marks) like you fall off your bike. So, it’s all them gun butt that they lash me up in me neck back,” the young man said.
The accident occurred as Murphy attempted to evade a party of Policemen who were conducting a roadblock at the time outside the East La Penitence Police Station.
He was riding an unmarked motorcycle without a helmet on the wrong side of the road when he collided head-on with a car in oncoming traffic.
Murphy and his family maintained, however, that the injuries sustained from the accident were minor and not life threatening enough to render him cripple as he remained up to the time of his death.
But the Traffic Chief has rejected those assertions and said the Police Force has cooperated with the family in all ways reasonable.
An active investigation is ongoing with a file soon to be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for advice.
“One of the things with a lot of persons, we do not want to take responsibility for our own actions but blame others for the problems we are facing in Guyana.
“Now how the Police will beat you and you unconscious? If Police beating an injured man why the whole village didn’t keep noise?” Superintendent Stephen quizzed when contacted by the News Room.
Notwithstanding, the family is insisting on seeing the full video, beyond the collision, for their own closure. That has not been afforded to them.
“The video that we have shows up to when everybody flagged the area… it doesn’t show what happen after because we are not interested in what happened after,” the Traffic Chief noted.
Murphy’s mother and siblings told the News Room that the Police have not fully cooperated with them and they only found out that he was hospitalised one day after the incident when they received a call from a doctor.
The News Room spoke to his sister, Amanda Murphy on Saturday and amid tears, she recalled that although she engaged a Sergent Johnson from the East La Penitence Police Station, Police Commissioner (ag) Clifton Hicken and then the Traffic Chief, she was unable to see the full video of what transpired the night on February 13.
The man’s sister said she was shown a video by the Police but it cuts abruptly at the moment the car (HD 2280) and motorcycle collided. The car is from the Green Ice taxi service and was reportedly driven by Trevor Betham.
Murphy’s spine was severely damaged. It rendered him cripple from his neck down.
To be honest I does wonder how these wives of these animals Policemen does act normal because everyone have their day of Death and God 🙏 Don’t Sleep.
y’all ever hear Old people says the sin’s of the parents always fell on the Children.