Cop, driver differ on death of baby chicks

Aug 25, 2018 News 0

The dead chicks in Andrew King’s car

Thirty-six year-old Andrew King is trying his utmost to come up with the money he now owes to his employer following the death of some 600 chicks he was hired to transport.
An article in yesterday’s edition highlighted the plight of the Sophia resident, and has since prompted a response from the Guyana Police Force, with ranks stationed at Ruimveldt Police Station, giving their account of what transpired.
The statement reads:
‘The Guyana Police Force is responding to an article in today’s (Friday’s) edition of Kaieteur News under the caption “600 chicks die in car after driver detained for hours”.
Initial enquiries revealed that the about 12:00h yesterday (Thursday), a motorcar was observed by a Traffic Subordinate Officer overtaking a queue of vehicles on the southern lane of Mandela Avenue proceeding east in the opposite driving lane, in a dangerous manner; vehicles proceeding west were forced to take evasive action and pull further south.
The vehicle was stopped by the said rank who told the driver of the offence committed and instructed that he proceed to the Ruimveldt Police Station.
About fifteen minutes later (12:15h), the driver, whose vehicle was parked in front of the station, was processed and released on his own recognizance; and shortly after, he accused the police of being responsible for the death of a number of baby chicks inside of his vehicle, which had blinds around the windows.
An investigation has since been launched into the matter.
It must be noted that the entire process lasted less than half an hour; hence the driver Andrew King claims of being detained for hours, is very much untrue.”
This statement however is being challenged by King who claims that the Force’s details could not be further from the truth. King alleges that he visited the Fung-a-Fat Hatcheries located on Quamina Street at 10:30am to make sure that he would be first in line. King says that from the Hatchery, he then proceeded en route to West Coast Demerara, when he was stopped along Mandela Avenue, around 11am, and was asked to drive to the station.
Fung-a-Fat Hatcheries confirmed that King was in fact there around 10:30am to uplift the chicks.
King continued by saying it wasn’t until minutes to one o’clock that he was allowed to leave and check on his car, where he made the grim discovery. He said it was his screams and shouts that led to the officers upstairs coming down to see what caused the outburst.
“Is then a brown clothes (police officer) come down to me, and she keep saying how she ain’t know I got chickens in de car, so I tell her, I understand you gotta look out fuh you soldier dem, but I tell dem man wuh going on (that the chicks were in the locked car).”
He claims that he was then made to sign “a piece of document” that he believes was a release paper and told to go on his way.
King was hired Thursday morning to deliver 600 chicks to a farmer on the West Coast of Demerara, but during the aforementioned events, the chicks died in his care, and this has saddled him with a debt of $90,000.