A man who said he was the victim of a vicious and unwarranted attack by a police officer is accusing the Barbados Police Service of dragging its feet on his complaint.
Dwaine Payne said he was liming at a stall on Kadooment Day last year when a lawman approached and asked him a question, but before he could make a move, another officer walked up to him, beat him about the body with a baton and then slapped him twice in the face.
The incident was captured on video and widely circulated on social media, but Payne charged that his attempts to make a complaint were initially ignored and several months after being allowed to lodge it, police have not gotten back to him in their investigation into the matter.
“The officer was dressed in camouflage and wearing a helmet so I ain’t get a good look of his face. It happened so fast and he just walked away afterwards,” Payne said, as he called for justice.
He still has the video saved in his phone and had even given it to police officers.
Shock
Payne said he still gets the chills whenever he plays it.
“It was dark, probably going on to 8 o’clock. I was liming at the stall for the whole day with some friends. I was just standing up there talking when a group of police officers passed by and one of them came up to me and said I look like somebody that they looking for. I tell him, ‘No, I don’t get involved in any crime’.
“Then I just see this big police officer come and grab me, pull me and started to hit me with a baton. I say, ‘Wuh you hitting me for?’ The officer who was talking to me ask he, ‘Wuh you doing?’ and knock the baton out of his hand. He just slap me two times in my face and then walk off. I was in shock. I was angry.”
Payne said people started to gather around. In the video, voices could be heard protesting the police action. Other police officers rushed to the scene asking what was going on.
In shock and in pain, Payne said he bought food for his girlfriend and went to his Hoytes Village, St James home.
“I could not sleep that night. I just could not get over what happened to me,” he said, adding that the next day he was sent the video of the attack and went straight to Black Rock Police Station to lay a complaint.
“When I get there I went up to the desk and tell the officer that a policeman beat me up on Spring Garden and I want to lay a complaint. The officer shout at me and tell me leave the station now.”
Payne said he then went to the office of attorney Martie Garnes, who advised him to go to the Office of Professional Responsibility.
“When I got there, the officer that I spoke to called Black Rock Station and told them treat this man case like any other case and take a statement from him. He also tell them to send a vehicle to pick me up. He also asked me if I wanted to make a complaint about the officer that chase me out of the station. I told him I am not worrying about that, I just want
the policeman that hit me charged.”
Payne said he was driven to the police station and a statement recorded from him. He also gave them the names of witnesses. “They tell me they gine get back to me and let me know what going on.”
Status
He said he also found it strange that four days after the incident, police picked up his son, who he pointed out “look everything like me”, questioned him about an incident and released him without charge. However, Payne said after four months passed with no word from police, he went back to the station to find out what was the status of the investigation, but all he was told was that he would have to speak to the station sergeant, who was never available.
“I went back to the Office of Professional Responsibility and they told me to go back to the station and speak to the station sergeant. I went back to the station about four times and as soon as I walk through the door, the officer would say, ‘The station sergeant ain’t here’.”
Payne said he also got his lawyer to write a letter to the Commissioner of Police enquiring about the state of the investigations but no response was forthcoming.
Pointing to his mouth, the businessman said he has lost two teeth where he was slapped and another one was “loose”.
“He hit me in my chest with the baton and whenever I breathe, I does feel a pain in my chest. I do foolishness when I was a teenager but this is 27 years that I have not gotten into anything. I free myself from all of that because it ain’t worth it,” the 43-year-old father of three said.
Choking back tears, he said he was demanding justice.
Hands tied
“This thing got me real disturbed. I feel bad because there is nothing I can do. My hands tied but honestly, I want justice.
“Forgive me for my tears,” he said, holding his head in his hands and sobbing. “It hurts me when I talk about it.”
This column contacted the Office of Professional Responsibility and was informed that Payne’s matter was under investigation.
Inspector Ryan Brathwaite, of the Black Rock Station, said a file had been opened on the incident and it was actively under investigation by a sergeant. He also pointed out that the police would contact Payne to update him.
I went back to the station about four times and as soon as I walk through the door, the officer would say, ‘The station sergeant ain’t here’.” (MB)
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