Barrouallie man killed by police

Police are carrying out investigations into the shooting death of Nicholas “Perpel” Grant of Barrouallie who was being sought by the police. {{more}}

A press release from the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force states that Ernest James, superintendent of police in charge of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), is heading the investigation into the incident which occurred in Barrouallie on Thursday, December 30, 2004.

The press release states that the 31-year-old Grant, was sought by the Barrouallie Police following a report of alleged damaged to property. It further stated that “Grant is alleged to have accosted the police, armed with a cutlass.”

The carefully worded police release, however, stopped short of admitting that Grant was shot at the hands of the police officers. It said only that Grant “was shot in the right leg and left arm at about 7:10 a.m.” and “was rushed to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital where he died”.

However, Junior Gloster, a young man who claims to have been the last person to speak with Grant on the fateful morning, is refuting the police’s claim that his friend accosted them armed with a cutlass.

“All he had in his hand was a little radio,” Gloster said.

Recounting the drama that unfolded before him, Gloster said: “Me and Perpel was here reasoning, he was telling me he want to go to the bank. When he look around the police was by the gate and he start to run.

“Five police officers come here in plain clothes. Stapleton [a police officer] was the one with the gun and he fired a shot at him [Grant] as he tried to run up the bank. He give him two shots in his legs. Then he give him one on his shoulder and another in his back. When Perpel get the one in his back he said ‘Oh God’.”

Gloster claimed that Grant continued running and was caught by the police a few yards away, washed in blood.

Tilford Gloster, another man who also said he was Grant’s friend, stated that minutes before he heard the sounds of bullets, Grant was at his home. He said that at the time Grant left, he only had a radio in his hand.

“That is height of wickedness. Perpel got murdered,” Gloster sighed.

“When the police reach where Perpel was lying on the ground they started dragging him by his shirt but they stopped when the mothers and children start to bawl,” Tilford stated.

“Up to now we can’t catch we self, because he was a brother to us. I feel very sad because the police didn’t have to shoot Perpel,” Pamela Lee another neighbour, said.

Grant’s neighbours said his brush with the law stemmed from an incident where he allegedly destroyed a bicycle after the rider rode on his foot. The damaged property for which the deceased was being sought was the bicycle.