DEPUTY COMMISSIONER of Police, Law Enforcement, Mr. Seelall Persaud, yesterday said that ballistic tests were completed in relation to shotgun pellets which killed the three Lindeners on July 18 and found that they were not “police issued.” Three Lindeners were fatally shot during a protest exercise over the hike in electricity tariff.
However, a Commission of Inquiry was set up to do an independent investigation and report its findings to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Shalimar Ali-Hack, for advice, Persaud added.
He told the Guyana Chronicle that the ballistics testing was done by the police and they are awaiting the report from the Commission of Inquiry for further action.
Persaud previously said that the shotgun pellets used to kill the Lindeners on July 18 in Linden are not “police issued” pellets since members of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) do not use that type of cartridges and they are still checking to ascertain where it came from.
Persaud explained that it is difficult to say which shotgun the pellets were fired from noting that from the cartridges used it is not easy to distinguish the weapon that was used in that incident.
The ballistics testing of the metal fragments recovered from the bodies of the three Linden protestors, who were shot and killed in the mining community on July 18 during a stand-off with law men, were handed over to the police, after some delay. This followed the post mortem examinations a week ago.
The autopsies were conducted by government pathologist, Dr. Nehaul Singh, in the presence of Trinidadian pathologist Professor Hubert Daisley, and revealed that the men were all shot through the heart with “bronze-capped” lead bullets.
The trio: Shemroy Bouyea, Allan Lewis, and Ron Somerset, were fatally shot during a protest exercise against a proposed increased tariff in electricity in Linden.