OPR probing claims of cop burning teen in lock-ups

The Guyana Police Force (GPF) in a statement on Monday said the Police Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) will be investigating what transpired with a teen detainee in the Vigilance Police Station lock-ups.

In the statement, the GPF said Johiem Peters, a 17-year-old of Annandale, East Coast Demerara has accused a Guyana Police Force rank stationed at the Vigilance Police Station of torturing him.
“The Police Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) is looking into his claim. The inquiry has so far shown that on July 10, 2022, at around 10:30hrs, Peters was arrested pending an investigation into an allegation of an alleged robbery under arms in which he was recognised as one of the attackers and was assisting the Police with the said investigation,” the statement read.
Peters told investigators that while he was detained, two of his friends – names withheld – were also brought into custody.
Police said they were sitting on the prisoner’s bench in front of the lock-ups with another male detainee when Peters asked one of them for a cigarette lighter and his friend gave him a lighter.
“The other prisoner admitted to seeing when Peters’s friend gave him the cigarette lighter but claimed that he only heard Peters screaming while he was alone in the cell. The Police officer on duty at the Vigilance Police Station rushed to the cell and removed Peters while his shirt was still on fire,” the statement from the GPF read.
Peters, who was subsequently questioned by Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs), claimed that he had been smoking in the lock-ups when he fell asleep and the cigarette caught on his shirt.
Two other civilian witnesses informed the investigators that they heard Peters screaming from his cell while they were at the station and that when the Police on duty took him outside, they saw fire on his shirt.
Meanwhile, the young man stated that he was beaten to say he set himself on fire.
He claimed “I went inside the lock-up and them man beat me… after the policeman (name mentioned) come in the lock-up now, he want knock me to talk about some gun and I tell he me ain’t know about no gun and me and he start to scuffle… I end up and tek off meh jersey and that catch fire… when the ambulance come, they tell them I burn meh self… they end up and beat me fuh say duh.”
The man reportedly left his home on the ECD on Thursday and was heading to Georgetown, when he, along with two others were picked up by Police and taken to the Vigilance Police Station.