The National Newspaper of St. Vincent and the Grenadines
FRIDAY,
MAY 05, 2017
VOLUME 111, No.18
www.thevincentian.com
EC$1.50
COUPLE CLAIMS BRUTAL BEATING DURING RAID
by HAYDN HUGGINS TWENTY-THREE-YEAR-OLD Friekesha Douglas, charged in connection with a major gun and ammunition haul at Lowmans Bay on January 18, 2017, claims she and her boyfriend, Randy Shallow, 31, were brutally beaten by the police officers who raided their home, and the blows caused her pregnancy to come to a pre-mature end. Douglas leveled the allegation under cross-examination by Senior
Prosecutor Adolphus Delpleche, as the trial continued at the Serious Offences Court on Tuesday. Douglas and Shallow, both of Lowmans Leeward, are charged jointly with possession of a prohibited weapon, to wit, a submachine gun, and having a component part of a prohibited weapon, to wit, a magazine of an AK47 rifle. The couple is also charged jointly with possession, without licences, of a .38 revolver, a glock pistol, 14 rounds of .40 ammunition, 42 rounds of 9mm ammunition, one round of .38 ammunition and one round of 7.62 ammunition. Attorney Grant Connell is representing the couple. In her testimony on Tuesday, Douglas told the Court that she was beaten by two of the police officers who raided their Lowmans Bay apartment that morning, while Shallow was beaten by about five. She said a male officer struck her in her back, causing her to fall to the ground, and while she was getting up, the officer struck her on her left side. “I turn to him (officer) and told him I was pregnant, ‘suppose he mek me lose the child.’ He said, ‘so, me nah (expletive) care’.” She claimed she was also slapped by a female officer whom she identified as Asursha Miller. The woman said that the other officers beat her boyfriend for about 15 to 20 minutes causing him to bleed from his mouth. According to her, Shallow did not resist, as an officer she identified as Sergeant Morgan administered the blows. Morgan, Douglas recalled, had also shouted to a police officer, who was holding a gun to her boyfriend’s head, and ordered the officer to “kill him.”
Douglas added that she was handcuffed, while Shallow was handcuffed and shackled around his ankles. They were taken to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at the Central Police Station, and it was then she realized she was bleeding from her vagina. When questioned by the Senior Prosecutor, Douglas said she was pregnant when the officers were beating her, but did not know how far she was into her pregnancy. According to her, she last had her menstrual cycle on November 3, 2016. “How did you know you were pregnant?” Delpleche asked the accused, who explained that she did a test. Douglas however added that she was no longer pregnant, when further questioned by the prosecutor. “What curtailed the pregnancy?” Delpleche asked the woman who replied, “The lashes I got.” But Douglas admitted that she did not receive a medical report to that effect. Shallow, who had testified just before Douglas, told the Court that there were about ten police officers on the raid, but only about seven entered their apartment, and he was never
Randy Shallow and Friekesha Douglas (left), in separate testimonies, claimed to have been beaten by police officers during a raid on their apartment, which resulted in the seizure of the guns and ammunition below. shown a warrant. He claimed to being struck in his face, when he asked to be shown a warrant. Both defendants said two officers walked into their bedroom with two guns and told them, “Watch what we found.” Continued on Page 3.