A?raid at a home in Reed Street yesterday morning has left a number of residents in the Bridgetown district quite upset at the police’s actions.
Eyewitnesses in the densely populated district said four jeeps with officers carrying guns and dogs moved in about 9 a.m. and entered the house Albert Stoute shares with girlfriend Glenda Boyce, their son, Albert Boyce, and two stepchildren.
According to them, only the 19-year-old son was at home. Residents also claimed that the officers did not show a warrant before entering the small two-bedroom house, ransacked it, broke a window and damaged a door.
“They just brought a paper and flash it and [carry] it long with them, and I don’t think that that is right . . . . We coulda hear things on the inside getting lick down and t’ing. When the mother attempt to go in they refuse to let her in, and went long with the son, but it’s bad,” a neighbour said.
Residents said police only allowed Stoute in after one of them came with a copy of the Bill of Rights and told them they were not “following protocol”.
An irate Stoute told the DAILY NATION he was in the market when he got a call from his girlfriend to “come and go up hey now ’cause the Task Force got all the house digging up”.
“And they ain’t find nothing in the house. They skin up [everything] and they ain’t find nutten. What is the sense digging up the place and I ain’t home? They just come and pull open the door,” Stoute said, adding that the police said they were searching for ammunition.
Admitting he did not know if his son was involved in anything that would result in arrest, he said he heard about an incident on Tuesday at the St John carnival on the radio. While he said his son was at the carnival, he insisted his son did not own a gun.
Stoute said his son was “accused” in an incident in New Orleans sometime last year and police searched the house, but it was not like yesterday.
He claimed he had five brand new suits in the wardrobe that were thrown on the floor during the police action, and that his son’s room was also ransacked as well as the kitchen and living area.
Glenda said she was at the hospital when she got a call about the police. She was upset that she was not allowed to go into the house; the house was in a state and a window damaged, and that close to $4 500 which was set aside to repair the house and a quantity of jewellery were missing after the raid.
Police public relations officer Inspector David Welch confirmed that lawmen executed a warrant at the house, that the couple’s son was taken to assist with the investigation, and that jewellery was taken away for “further investigation”.
In response to the allegation that police did not show a warrant, Welch said the officers were armed with a warrant and they showed it.
He has advised the family to take any grievances they have to the Police Complaints Authority and or the Office of Professional Responsibility. (YB)
