A POLICE constable has been removed from active duty after ballistics’ testing found gunpowder residue on his hands following the accidental shooting of 54-year-old Jean Rodrigues on September 20 at the Timehri Bus Park.The Lot 35 Crane Housing Scheme, West Coast Demerara resident was shot in her lower back after being caught in the crossfire between police and suspected thieves.

A police statement on Monday revealed that the ballistics’ results contradict statements given by the police constable and the suspect whom he was chasing at the time of the shooting. A senior police officer has since confirmed to this newspaper that gunpowder residue was also found on the hands of the 17-year-old suspect, who has been released from police custody.

The traffic rank involved in the shooting, who is stationed at the Brickdam Police Station, had claimed that he did not shoot the woman, and had blamed the teenager. However, police sources disclosed to the Guyana Chronicle that the rank admitted he had fired one shot from his service revolver.

Mother of the suspect, Linda Forde, had turned him over to the police the very next day after the shooting, and has proclaimed that her son is not bandit, but a well-educated student of Chase Academy, who has earned many awards as a football player.

Relatives of the injured woman had also claimed that it was the police rank who had shot the mother of 10. Rodrigues has since been discharged from the hospital, and is recuperating at home.

Investigators are now trying to determine if the bullet which injured the woman had been fired from the service revolver of the rank. A senior police officer told this newspaper that the Force decided to give the traffic rank a weapon because his life had been threatened many times.

This newspaper understands that the rank once served in the interior, and was shot once in the line of duty. He was described by his colleagues as a rigid enforcer of traffic rules and regulations. According to the police statement, the file will be completed in a few days’ time and sent for legal advice.