A MINIBUS driver of Cornelia Ida, West Bank Demerara, who is a father of three children, was pronounced dead on arrival yesterday at the Leonora Cottage Hospital where he was taken by police ranks.The Guyana Chronicle was informed that the 28-year-old man who was picked up by members of the Community Policing Group on Tuesday evening, following damage to property report against him, was first held briefly at the Leonora Police Station before being transferred to the Parika Police Station.

It was reported that while there the man began behaving strangely while other prisoners were still in the lockups. They claimed that the man might have been an epileptic and was suffering a bout of seizures while in the lockups.
Investigators were told that yesterday morning the man was seen hitting himself against the concrete walls of the lockups. The police on duty were informed and the man was immediately taken out of the holding facility and transferred to the Leonora Police Station and subsequently taken to the Cottage Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Meanwhile, police are said to be investigating the rationale behind placing the man in the lockups for the damage to property charge when according to at least one police source, he could have been placed on station bail.
However, the police source could not say if releasing the man on the same night that he was arrested could have been considered a danger to the complainant.
The police yesterday in a press statement reported that when the man was taken from the Parika Police Station he was alive and lying on the floor of the lockups when the ranks responded to the alarm of the other prisoners.
The matter is being investigated by the police Office of Professional Responsibility.