Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 23, 2019 News
Agricola, East Bank Demerara teen, Shaquille Grant, was just one day shy of his eighteenth birthday when he was shot and killed by police ranks on September 11, 2012. The State recently conceded in the High Court that the police wrongfully killed the young man, and agreed to pay $28M to his mother, Shonette Adams, who had filed a lawsuit back in 2014.
Adams, during a recent interview on Benschop Radio aired on 107.1FM, expressed that although she has received justice nothing could ever replace the hurt and grief she still endures. She has since showered all praises to heaven.
During the radio programme, Adams expressed, “It was back in the year 2011; it was on the 11th of September my son was brutally executed by three members of the Guyana Police Force who claimed they received information on a group of teens planning a robbery.”
Asked by the moderator, Mark Benschop, to relate how she felt after she found out that her son had been shot and had died, Adams stated, “It was like…It’s not happening. It’s not real. Is like my entire tummy, your mid-section… it wasn’t there. I was cold. It was like if I was crushed.
“I had wanted my son to wake up. But after realising that he would not wake up, I wanted to get justice. You wanted to know if these police were humans and whose orders they were following. Until now, that pain is still there. The hurt, the grief…”
According to Adams, her son was a very respectful and mannerly child. She said he was obedient and loved by everyone in the community. The woman said, too, that her child was actively involved in sports and was a member of the Rhythm Squad Football Team. She added that he was also a part of the basketball team in the community and was captain for his school’s cricket team.
Adams said that Grant received certificates for computer studies and catering.
Questioned by Benschop as to whether she felt sure she would have received justice for her son’s killing, Adams replied “Yes”. She explained that this was so because after her son was gunned down, she was visited by now President David Granger and prominent lawyer Nigel Hughes.
The woman recalled that she was also visited by Benschop. She added that persons from far and wide attended her son’s funeral, and this assured her that the country was on her side. She said that she is a God-fearing person, and this helped her to withstand the tests of times.
During the interview, Benschop noted that Adams had been ignored by the previous government in her quest for justice.
The moderator asked the mother to express her views on this. She pointed out, “The way I feel then, I still feel the same way now.” In this regard, she went at length to scrutinise the then PPP/C government. She expressed that she was not confident of getting justice under that government.
Police ranks Terrence Wallace, Warren Blue and Jamal Lewis were subsequently charged for the murder of Grant. Wallace, however, faced a High Court trial and was acquitted by a jury. While Lewis remains on the run, in 2014, Blue was shot and killed by police during a botched robbery on a supermarket at Montrose, East Coast Demerara.
Commenting on Blue’s killing Adams noted, “I would have preferred him (Blue) to turn himself in and do some 65 so I could go to him and ask him to accept Christ, and try to show him certain facts of life and help him to turn his life around. And what was sad, this said officer who played a part in executing my child was caught in a robbery.”
The mother recalled that she had met with Jamal Lewis, and confronted him, and he told her he was following orders. Terrence Wallace, she added, also told her the same thing. Further, on in the programme, Benschop reminded Adams that the PPP and Police Force tried to tarnish her son by linking him to criminal activities, but eventually rendered a public apology.
Adding her voice in this regard, Adams said, “I was very much upset and angry. I felt as if they killed my child again. God is good!”
Adams was suing the State for in excess of $300,000 over (a) the wrongful death of her son, (b) breach of his fundamental right under Article 138 of the Constitution of Guyana, not to be deprived of his life intentionally, and for (c) assault and battery.
For each of the abovementioned claims, the mother is asking for damages in excess of $100,000. She is also asking the court for (d) exemplary damages, (e) costs, (f) interest and (g) such further or other order as seen just by the court.
Grant, 17, formerly of Lot 110 Caesar Street, Agricola, East Bank Demerara, was shot three times after police ranks on mobile patrol swooped down on a group of youths in the community on September 11, 2012. Police in a press release said that on the day of the shooting, the ranks came under fire and they returned fire, fatally wounding Grant.
Police said a .38 Smith and Wesson revolver was also recovered at the scene.
According to the police, they had received information that a gang in Agricola was planning a robbery on a business entity located near the Guyana National Stadium at Providence, East Bank Demerara. After a lengthy trial before Justice Navindra Singh at the High Court in Georgetown, a 12-member mixed jury acquitted Wallace of Grant’s murder.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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