One-legged man says police beat him up

Another Vincentian has alleged brutality at the hands of members of the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force.{{more}}

Forty-one-year-old Sheldon Selby, a resident of Prospect, visited the office of SEARCHLIGHT to relate his story.

According to Shelby, he was in the vicinity of Yankee’s shop in Lower Kingstown last Saturday, January 24th, at around 4 a.m. when he got involved in a skirmish.

“I was there when a man came in the area and said that somebody thief his silver chain. I say to him good for you cause you is a thief too”

Selby said that after a brief argument, the man struck him at the back of his head, which caused him to fall to the ground.

Selby, who has one leg, said that the man proceeded to beat him about the body with one of his crutches.

He managed to get to his feet and during the fracas, bit his alleged attacker on his left ear.

“I was fighting for my life, so I bite off ah piece of his ears,” Selby recounted.

The fight was soon broken up by bystanders, just before members of the Criminal Investigation Department arrived on the scene.

Selby said that the police sent both men to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital,

but before he got there, he was approached by the police who, without

explanation, proceeded to beat him.

He claimed that he was taken to the Central Police Station where the beating continued.

“They beat me with baton and a piece of cable. All now me feeling pain in my ribs and my leg and below my neck,” Selby lamented.

The street peddler added that he was later taken to the hospital to have his wounds treated. However, he alleges that he was prevented by the police from accessing the medication that was prescribed to him for his pain.

On Tuesday, January 27th, 2009, at the Magistrate’s Court, in Kingstown, he

was charged for maliciously wounding Sheldon Hackette.

Selby claims that this is not the first time he was beaten by the police.

“One time I went to report a matter against another fella, and when the police taking me to the scene, one officer tek his gun and buss me head. I had to jump out of the transport.”

Selby acknowledged that he is no saint; he had been an inmate of Her Majesty’s Prisons on a number of occasions; he admitted to losing his leg because of a stab wound during an altercation with another man.

Amidst his brushes with the law, he claimed to have been on the right side of the law since he last left prison early 2008.

Selby believes that he was unfairly treated by the police because of his past and wants to be treated fairly.

“Wrong is wrong and right is right. I did not do anything wrong that time and I deserve justice,” said Selby.

Selby claimed that he made a report of the beating to the Police Public Relations Department. This was confirmed by the Head of the Department, Inspector Jonathan Nichols.

Nichols disclosed that a report was made, and the allegations were being investigated.(JJ)