Cutlass named ‘Beyonce’

During a visit to the Forres Park, Claxton Bay area yesterday, where the families of the beaten men live, relatives claimed the soldiers terrorised them.

A cutlass, nicknamed “Beyonce” (after American pop singing star Beyonce Knowles) was allegedly placed at the neck of the wife of one of the beaten men by the soldiers one of whom asked if the family wanted to hear “Beyonce” sing. The woman who gave her name only as “Crystal” also claimed that the soldiers asked her two-year-old daughter, “where daddy does keep his gun?”

Brian Harricharan, his brother Dwayne, 25, and their friend Sheldon Best, 40, were allegedly beaten by the soldiers who stormed the homes of the brothers during the early hours of Thursday morning in search of drugs and guns. Dwayne and Best were treated and subsequently discharged from hospital the same day. The incident was witnessed by close relatives of the men including Harricharan’s mother Surujdaye who said she kept praying for her children’s lives as they were being beaten.

Yesterday the distraught relatives were still trying to come to terms with the incident.

Speaking to Newsday yesterday, Dwayne recalled, “I am not in anything illegal. I am a diesel mechanic and I work honestly. They came when I was sleeping with my wife and children.

“Just so they started brutalising me,” he said. Dwayne said that after he and his brother and their friend were handcuffed, beaten and kicked by angry soldiers, they were each given a bath and made to put back on their clothes.

The families are demanding an investigation be carried out into the incident. “We demand that justice be done,” a relative said.

The relatives said they were warned about going to the media. “The soldiers warned that they would return for us if we went to the media,” Dwayne said. Best who also spoke to Newsday said he too was in pain.

“They tied our hands with tie straps and said they will kill us. When I started to bawl to attract attention, they told me they would kill us,” he said. Crystal said she later called the police. Best said the beating only stopped at about 5.30 am when police officers arrived on the scene.

A report was made to the St Margaret’s Police Station following the incident on Thursday.

Yesterday police officers visited Dwayne at his home and recorded a statement from him.