Victims will sue police and B.Q. Pitts

Prime Minister Barrow is not the only person who found it unacceptable. The alleged victims believed they had a strong case and sought legal advice. Philip Palacio, attorney and P.U.P. politician for Mesopotamia took the case. Palacio and some of the victims went to the police station today to make a report. But instead of taking their report, the cops told them to take the complaint to internal affairs. Palacio says that they will sue the Commissioner of Police as well as the Attorney General.

Phillip Palacio, Attorney for Alleged GSU Abuse Victims

Phillip Palacio

“Shawn Alay, Brandon Tillett, Albert Fuentes and Lenard Myers. The situation is, well as you guys know, last Thursday, February ninth in the early morning, persons went up in to the apartment building where they reside. They were beaten and the persons left. We later learnt on the news; the gentlemen were alleging it was members from the GSU who had entered the building and beat them up. The leader of the GSU has denied this. What we have done so far is that everybody have been taken to get medical attention. And in terms of Shawn Alay, his injuries were certified as harm. For Brandon Tillett, his injuries were certified as grievous harm—he had a broken shoulder. And Albert Fuentes; he suffered a broken elbow. His injuries have been classified also as grievous harm. And in terms of Lenard Myers, his injuries were classified as wounding—he received a split in the head. I have advised them to make criminal reports. We tried to make criminal reports this morning at the patrol branch. The officers did not want to take reports. They advised us to go over to internal affairs office. And when we went over to the internal affairs office, the person in charge advised us to bring in some medico legal form. But they have instructed me to issue Notice of Intended Prosecution ft sue the Commissioner of Police and also the Attorney General. We don’t know who the officers are—they have three names in terms of the officers; those names are associated with the GSU. One of the names is always called whenever an incident is in relation to the GSU. I have also been instructed by the homeowner, Misses Barbara Frazer and what happen is that people from the internal affairs and the police department had gone over to the Dean Street apartment and they had fixed up the doors that were kicked in and that kind of thing. So in our view that is some kind of concession of some sorts that there were some involvement with the police because it was the police who went there and fixed up the doors.”

When we contacted the GSU today, Marco Vidal maintained the unit was not involved in Thursday’s incident.