‘We Do Not Trust the Police to Investigate the Police’ – FDM Demands PCA Probe

By Mark DaCosta- The Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) said on 3 November that the death of Gavin Douglas in police custody at Vreed-en-Hoop cannot be left to the Guyana Police Force to investigate. The opposition party wants President Irfaan Ali to refer the case to the Police Complaints Authority (PCA). It argues that only an independent body can restore public confidence, after a post-mortem contradicted the Force’s first account of how the 32-year-old died.

Douglas, a labourer of Crane Housing Scheme, West Coast Demerara, was arrested on Saturday in connection with an alleged armed robbery on 28 October. Police say he reached the Vreed-en-Hoop station at about 11:36 a.m., and that around noon, as he was being placed in the lockups, he turned aggressive and resisted the ranks. He was dead less than two hours after arriving.

Full coverageGavin Douglas Dies in Police Custody at Vreed-en-Hoop Station11 reports

The post-mortem has complicated that narrative considerably. It found that he died of a brain haemorrhage caused by blunt trauma. The movement adds that two Taser studs were taken from his body, and that relatives who witnessed the examination say his intestines were ruptured. Its statement dismisses the police version as “exceedingly sanitised, if not downright misleading,” and says the findings point to a man “tortured in police custody.”