IN showing respect and appreciation for the invaluable service provided to the people of Guyana by slain Police Constable Antonio Dawson, the government will be awarding his mother and children the sum of $1M. Minister of State Joseph Harmon yesterday made the disclosure at a post-Cabinet press briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency.
According to the minister, Cabinet at its most recent meeting had approved payment of the sum after extensive deliberation.
He noted that Cabinet recognised that in circumstances where persons in the Disciplined Services die in the line of duty, a stronger regime of measures must be put in place to take care of their families.
He further said that provision for the payment of $1M in such cases follows a Cabinet decision that was made in 2002. However, Cabinet has also given Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan the responsibility of revising the arrangement, since the regular provisions of the National Insurance Scheme and the Dependants Pension Fund would not cover some of the situations in which police ranks die.
Twenty-eight-year-old Police Constable Antonio Dawson who was attached to the Impact Base at Brickdam died on September 18 at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) while undergoing surgery to save his life.
The rank was stabbed several times about the body at Houston, East Bank Demerara in the vicinity of the Gafoors Complex while attempting to arrest a man who later stabbed himself to the chest and slashed his throat.
According to reports, ranks on a marine patrol in the Demerara River, acting on information received, went to the Houston Fishing Wharf, EBD, where they saw a man acting in a suspicious manner.
The ranks approached him and during an attempt to conduct a search, the man forcibly resisted and assaulted one of the police ranks. He walked away and proceeded to an area in the vicinity of the Gafoors Complex where he was approached by ranks on a mobile police patrol that had responded to give assistance.
During efforts to arrest him, the man pulled out a knife and stabbed Constable Dawson. Police say that varying quantities of cocaine, marijuana and ecstasy were found in the suspect’s pants pockets. (Ravin Singh)