A man arrested alongside Gavin Kennard Douglas says he watched four police officers zip-tie Douglas’s hands and use taser guns on him at the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station, until he was dead within 20 minutes. Douglas’s father says a police officer had threatened to kill his son. Further claims say Douglas’s face was forced into a used toilet. These are the most damning allegations yet in a death that has shaken the country.
Douglas, a young man the family describes as healthy and free of any medical complaints, died within hours of his arrest on October 31st. This publication has already called for the release of the station’s CCTV footage. The new claims make that demand urgent.
“In the space a 20 minutes, the man dead”
Terrence Kishore, a 57-year-old mason, says he was arrested with Douglas on October 31st and taken to the same station. He has since been released on bail. In a video interview, he gave a harrowing account.
Kishore says he was made to sit outside a cell while four officers, including a sergeant, took Douglas to the back. He says they tied Douglas’s hands behind his back with zip-ties and used taser guns on him. “Four of them with the taser gun, in the space a 20 minutes, the man dead,” he said.
Kishore claims that the officers’ uniforms were left covered in blood and faeces. He says they had someone bring fresh jerseys from a store so they could change. Kishore says the lockup was smeared with faeces “upon the wall, upon the ground, all over.”
Questions over the cameras
Kishore also alleges that the sergeant spent about 25 minutes alone in the office that houses the station’s CCTV recorder. He says the station has more than 13 cameras, and that he can identify the officers involved “any time and any hour.”
His demand is simple: “Bring out the footage… you’re gonna see everything.”
Face in the toilet
Further allegations reaching this publication say officers forced Douglas’s face into a toilet and flushed it. It is alleged that wet toilet paper was found in his nostrils. If true, that would suggest his face was pushed into the bowl after it had been used and before it was flushed.
Father says officer threatened his son
APNU MPs Dr Dexter Todd and Riaz Rupnarine visited the grieving family. During the visit, Douglas’s father said a named police officer had earlier threatened to kill his son.
Dr Todd did not hold back. “We, the citizens of this country, keep saying over and over to this government that something is wrong with the police force, something is wrong with how they are governing the force, something is wrong with how they are enforcing law,” he said.
He questioned how a young man with no known illness could die so quickly in a police station. “How do you explain a healthy man without any medical complaints going into the police custody and in four to five minutes he’s a dead man? Something is wrong,” he said.
Dr Todd also pointed to the cost to taxpayers. He said the force that taxpayers pay to keep citizens safe is the same force now harming the people’s children. He told the family the official promises have become “empty words” because “this keep happening over and over and over.” He pledged the family’s support: “We are going to hold your hands, and we are going to ensure at the end of the day that you get the justice you deserve, because this is not right.”
What must happen now
None of these allegations has been independently verified, and the Guyana Police Force has not publicly responded to them. They make the case for transparency even stronger. The station’s CCTV footage must be released and secured before anyone can tamper with it. An independent post-mortem must be carried out with the family’s pathologist present. The officers involved must be removed from duty while an independent body investigates.
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