An Over-the-Hill family is calling for justice after police allegedly barged into their yard, kicked down their door and brandished guns in the faces of young children.
One family member, a 23-year-old man, was reportedly beaten so badly he received 11 stitches in total from several wounds about the head.
Shortly before 2am Sunday, Dexter Duncombe and seven other family members and friends were returning home from a wedding celebration when they said they heard a burst of gunshots several houses down from their Augusta Street home.
Minutes later, they said three police officers approached the truck they were sitting in, asking them where the sounds came from. The group pointed them in the direction.
“Ten to 15 minutes later they came back and they just walked in the yard and told my cousin and his girlfriend to come out of the truck and tell us come off the truck,” Mr. Duncombe told the Bahama Journal Wednesday.
“As I came off the truck, I was walking towards the house and as I put my hands on the door knob a policeman grabbed me and told me I couldn’t go inside the house.”
Said Mr. Duncombe: “I looked at him and said, ‘Why couldn’t I go inside the house? You’ll don’t have any warrant to come in the yard and you’ll aren’t saying nothing to no one.'”
The 23-year-old claimed he was grabbed and “roughed up” by the officer, before his partner joined in the “struggle.”
“The rest of them came and started gun butting me in my head,” Mr. Duncombe said. “All I felt was when they started gun butting me. The same cop who grabbed me from the door, put the gun to my side and told me he would shoot me and that’s when my brothers and his friends tried to stop them.”
He said the police called for backup, in the form of two buses and more patrol cars.
Although Mr. Duncombe was allowed to go free, six persons were rounded up and charged with resisting arrest, obscene language and assault.
According to Duncombe’s sister, 17-year-old Lolita, not only did police fire off their weapons in the yard, but a young corporal reportedly kicked the door down, went into a bedroom where three young children slept, and grabbed the sheet off them while brandishing the gun. Mr. Duncombe filed an official complaint later that Sunday morning.
“I really want to see justice happen because it wasn’t right. They know they weren’t right for what they did,” he said.
Police later came to repair the door, according to the family. They also reportedly promised to fix the family’s gate before the end of the week.
Police refuse to say whether the officers involved have a history of police brutality. Police Superintendent Hulan Hanna was unable to say how long the investigation would last.
When a complaint is lodged against an officer the Police Tribunal investigates the matter. Based on the evidence and the information discovered, that body makes a recommendation to the Commissioner of Police.
That recommendation can range from disciplinary to criminal proceedings.
“One of the constant criticisms that we got in the past about police investigating police is that people always say the police can not police the police,” Mr. Hanna said.
“And so the Complaints and Corruption Unit is supposed to have a civilian who is a lawyer – an impartial person. However, let me say that we have seen officers brought before the complaints unit and found guilty.”
The Duncombe family believes justice can only be carried out if the officers involved are fired.
“Later down the road they could do it to somebody else and they could do it worse than what they did to us,” Mr. Duncombe said.
His father, Dexter, told the Bahama Journal that his young children – ages one, four and 11 – are still in fear.
“If the gun had went off with my kids in there laying down what could they have told me?” he asked. “What would they say? We’re sorry, it was a mistake?
“Today it seems that the citizen don’t have any rights in their own yards. The police can come in your yard, your house at will, any time they feel like and do what they feel like to you.”
For the first six months of this year, in comparison to last there has been a drop in police corruption and complaints from 205 to 194.
According to the latest statistics 153 matters remain under active investigation.
By Tosheena Blair, The Bahama Journal
