Toco residents protest after cops kill man

TOCO residents came out in a fiery protest on Wednesday night after police shot and killed an unemployed man during a raid on an abandoned house. As the situation grew out of hand, with residents lighting bonfires and blocking the road, heavily armed police officers and soldiers arrived to restore order.

The residents began their protests shortly after Glenroy “Bro Bro” Elder was shot dead during a search on Wednesday night. According to reports, around 8.15 pm, Elder, 43, of Toco Main Road, L’Anse Noire, was liming with a friend inside an abandoned house off the Main Road, when a police jeep with the four officers stopped in front of two other men who were liming on the roadside. After searching the two men, the officers turned their attention to Elder and his friend, both of whom ran to the back of the house. One of the officers confronted Elder, who was hiding behind a fig tree and who reportedly attacked the officer.

The policeman drew his service firearm and shot Elder once in the left shoulder. They took the bleeding man to the Toco District Health Centre where he died while being treated. Residents who learnt of Elder’s shooting took to the street protesting what they deemed police brutality. One of the protesters claimed she was roughed up by the police and made to spend the night at the Toco Police Station before being released yesterday morning with no charges being laid against her. A team of senior police officers led by ACP (Crime) Oswyn Allard and Snr Supt Maurice Piggott arrived via helicopter around 9 am yesterday and spoke to several residents. They left at 11.30 am.

Elder, who was unmarried, had no children and used to do odd-jobs in the area. He was described by residents as a quiet person who kept to himself and whose only vice was to smoke marijuana. Evestine Thomas told Newsday she was startled out of her wits when the bullet which killed Elder, exited his body and penetrated a galvanise sheeting that was covering a window of her home. On hearing the gunshot, Thomas said, she ran and locked herself in her bedroom. An autopsy will be carried out on Elder’s body next Monday at the Forensic Sciences Centre. Within the past two weeks, residents in Laventille, Beetham and now Toco, have protested police brutality. The Laventille and Beetham protests followed joint army/police raids. Eastern Division head, Supt John Travajo, is spearheading investigations into the Elder slaying.