Taxi driver beats iNews reporter to a pulp
Kurt Campbell
Kurt Campbell

–for refusing to pay inordinately high fare

SENIOR Journalist and Corporate Communications Officer of iNews Guyana, Mr. Kurt Campbell, was savagely beaten early Sunday morning by a taxi driver for refusing to pay the exhorbitant fare he was asking. The incident reportedly occurred around 03:30 hrs.

Campbell, who caught the cab on Main Street, said he was physically attacked by the taxi driver, and was punched several times to his face even as a cutlass was held to his throat. But all he could recall about his assailant was that he was medium built, sported dreadlocks, and that the vehicle he drove (HC 2568), was attached to the Indian Chief Taxi Service.

Campbell said he and three friends had just exited a popular city nightspot, when they spotted the cab outside the establishment. He said they chose that particular vehicle because of the service to which it belonged.

He said that as the driver was about to move off, he inquired about the fare from Main Street to Kitty, and was told that it was $1500.

“After the driver told me the fare was $1500,” Campbell said, “I asked him to stop the car, but he continued to drive before stopping two lots away. He then told me that I have to pay him a short drop fare of $300, and I refused and then questioned if Kitty was a long drop. I refused to pay him for that and exited his vehicle.

“While I was walking back… [to the nightspot], I realised that my friends were still in the vehicle, so I turned back; as I was securing my friends, the driver, who had by then become very aggressive, pushed me and started to assault me.

“So I left him and continued to walk with my friends. He then went into his vehicle and took out a cutlass; and as I was walking, he came up to me and placed it to my neck.”

The driver discontinued his assault on Campbell after one of Campbell’s friends paid the man the $300 he had demanded for the two-lot ride on Main Street.

POLICE CRITICISED

Mr. Campbell and company visited the Alberttown Police Station just after the incident to make a report; but midway the statement being taken, a senior officer told the rank taking the statement to send them to Brickdam Station to receive a medical form, and further complete the statement.

Campbell said the officers at Brickdam Station handled the matter very unprofessionally. He said he was barred from entering the station, and although the Corporal on duty gave him the medical form, she refused to take a statement.

“While we were exiting the station, one of my friends asked the corporal why a statement wasn’t taken, and she responded that she already knew what the situation was. She claimed the driver had already made a report about me abusing and assaulting him, which are total lies. She said she believed everything that the driver said, and that she would use her power and charge all of us.

“I was appalled; and right then I felt like the system to protect me had failed…I returned to my home,” Campbell said.

(By Asif Hakim   )

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