Former Police Lance Corporal Kristoff De Nobrega has been freed of the murder charge stemming from the fatal shooting of Quindon Bacchus, following a ruling by High Court Judge Gino Persaud on Thursday at the Demerara High Court.
Justice Persaud upheld a no-case submission made by De Nobrega’s attorney, George Thomas, ruling that the prosecution failed to present sufficient evidence to support the charge. The decision effectively ends the high-profile case that had gripped the nation and sparked intense public debate over police accountability.
The charge against De Nobrega originated from the June 10, 2022 shooting of 23-year-old Quindon Bacchus, which occurred during an alleged undercover police operation in Haslington, East Coast Demerara. According to initial police reports, Bacchus was said to have fired at ranks during a purported gun sale transaction, prompting officers to return fire. He was later pronounced dead at the scene.
The post-mortem examination revealed that Bacchus died from six gunshot wounds, including five to his back and one to his chest.
However, the incident triggered days of mass protests across several East Coast Demerara communities, as residents demanded justice and transparency in the investigation. Demonstrators blocked roads, burned debris, and clashed with police, while Bacchus’s family insisted that the young father had been executed rather than killed in self-defense.
The Police Complaints Authority and the Office of Professional Responsibility had both conducted probes into the shooting before the case advanced to the High Court.
Following the ruling, there was an impassioned outpouring on social media by an alleged eyewitness, K. Lewis, who explained why she did not continue participating in the case. Lewis claimed that she had been threatened and feared for her life, saying, “I was never paid by anyone to stop going to court, my life was at risk from the first time I attended court…. I was being threatened when I was riding home from work and was stopped and men pulled gun on me.” Her statement reignited public concern over witness protection and the integrity of the justice process in high-profile cases involving the police.
Over the years, hundreds of Guyanese have died in alleged extra-judicial killings at the hands of the police, with no coroner’s inquests conducted as required by law, prompting the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) in 2024 to call for an independent investigation into the persistent pattern of unlawful killings—a call that the government has so far failed to act upon, deepening concerns about impunity and justice in the country.
In its 2024 review of Guyana’s human rights record, the Committee explicitly recommended that the State “investigate promptly, impartially, transparently and thoroughly all such allegations [of extrajudicial killings], bring perpetrators to justice and provide full reparation to victims’ families.”
Thursday’s decision to dismiss the charge brought a quiet end to the courtroom proceedings but reignited mixed public reactions online, with some citizens expressing dismay at the outcome and others defending the court’s decision as a matter of due process.
Attorney Thomas, in his submission, had argued that the evidence presented by the prosecution was “wholly circumstantial and insufficient to sustain a conviction.” Justice Persaud agreed, noting that the state had not established a prima facie case against the former rank.
De Nobrega, who had been on remand since being charged, is now free of all legal restraints.
