By Mark DaCosta- The Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) said on 3 November that the death of Gavin Douglas in police custody at Vreed-en-Hoop cannot be left to the Guyana Police Force to investigate. The opposition party wants President Irfaan Ali to refer the case to the Police Complaints Authority (PCA). It argues that only an independent body can restore public confidence, after a post-mortem contradicted the Force’s first account of how the 32-year-old died.
Douglas, a labourer of Crane Housing Scheme, West Coast Demerara, was arrested on Saturday in connection with an alleged armed robbery on 28 October. Police say he reached the Vreed-en-Hoop station at about 11:36 a.m., and that around noon, as he was being placed in the lockups, he turned aggressive and resisted the ranks. He was dead less than two hours after arriving.
The post-mortem has complicated that narrative considerably. It found that he died of a brain haemorrhage caused by blunt trauma. The movement adds that two Taser studs were taken from his body, and that relatives who witnessed the examination say his intestines were ruptured. Its statement dismisses the police version as “exceedingly sanitised, if not downright misleading,” and says the findings point to a man “tortured in police custody.”
The family has voiced similar suspicions. Relatives are demanding transparency and accountability from the Force, and have alleged a cover-up. Terence Kishore, 57, who was arrested alongside Douglas on New Road, has given an eyewitness account of the arrest. The movement further claims that eyewitnesses suggest the station’s recordings may have been tampered with before senior officers arrived. That claim is unverified, and the police have not publicly responded to it.
The authorities have moved on several fronts. The Office of Professional Responsibility has opened an investigation. Four ranks from the Vreed-en-Hoop station have been arrested and are being held at the Tactical Services Unit. Home Affairs Minister Oneidge Walrond has promised a thorough and impartial inquiry.
For the Forward Guyana Movement, that is not enough. Both units belong to the Force itself, and the party insists, “We do not trust the police to investigate the police.” It says an institution that has already given the nation a flawed account cannot be “trusted with the evidence.”
The movement points to a precedent set by the President himself. It says that when police shot and killed Quindon Bacchus in 2022, Mr Ali told the nation the Police Complaints Authority, chaired by retired Justice William Ramlall, would investigate and report to the Director of Public Prosecutions. The party argues Douglas deserves no less. It adds that if the Authority is not currently constituted, the Police Complaints Authority Act allows an “ad hoc Authority” to be appointed for a single investigation, so there is no legal obstacle to acting immediately.
The statement is also sharply political. Its authors recall the 2002 to 2008 period, which many Guyanese remember as a time of “rogue policemen and phantom killers” operating with impunity. They claim the country is “sliding back toward those dark days” under a PPP/C Government. The Government has not responded to that characterisation, and readers should weigh it as the view of an opposition party.
The party roots its case in principle rather than partisanship alone. It says the State must treat everyone in its custody with respect for their “inherent dignity” and must protect their life, regardless of what they are accused of. That duty, it says, extends equally to a constable, to Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed, and to any inmate in a lockup or prison cell. Whatever Douglas was accused of, it says, he deserved his day in court. Instead, it charges, the Force acted as “judge, jury and executioner.”
The coming days will test the authorities. The pending questions include whether any charges will follow the four arrests, whether the station’s footage is secured and intact, and whether the President will widen the inquiry beyond the Force.
