Not the end of it

But the matter, obviously, will not rest there. As reported in yesterday’s Newsday, attorney Anand Ramlogan, who has been retained by the family, is calling for an independent inquiry into the shooting, describing the Coast Guard’s report as “biased” and “a mere public relations job”. That may be so, but Mr Ramlogan’s call for an inquiry independent of the Coast Guard and the Police Service is, in our view, misdirected.

After all, the Coast Guard does not operate as an entity that is a law onto itself. A person has been killed, and the police have done their own investigation into the circumstances of his death.

Their report is now in the hands of the Director of Public Prosecutions, who will no doubt give the matter priority because of the high level of public interest in it. And, even if there really was no malice or ill intent in the killing, there is still the issue of manslaughter. The Coast Guard’s report will no doubt be part of the trial, but it will not be the determining factor in the outcome. Mohammed was in the company of two relatives when they were intercepted by the Coast Guard. The court will have the fishermen’s account of the event and will compare it to the account of the Coast Guard personnel who were present.

If charges are laid, then it is up to a jury to decide which account, if they differ, is more credible.

In that regard, though, the Coast Guard is already at a disadvantage. Mr Ramlogan has described their report as a “public relations job,” but in fact the Coast Guard’s public relations from the start of this matter has been atrocious. Their initial story, which claimed that Mohammed tried to ram the Coast Guard vessel with his pirogue, was widely disbelieved by members of the public. The spokesman’s statements on the report into the killing, which only gave the conclusion but no hint as to how that conclusion was reached, will not help the Coast Guard’s credibility. At the very least, for example, the public should have been told whether Mohammed was shot at close range, as alleged by his father, or not.

Instead, the spokesman for the Coast Guard even took the media to task for distorting the event, citing as one example the claim that the Coast Guard had said that Mohammed was smuggling drugs. What the Coast Guard officers actually said, according to the spokesman, was that Mohammed was in an area known for drug smuggling. But this is the kind of distinction which suggests that the Coast Guard is more interested in spin than in facts, for obviously by making such a statement the officers intended to impugn the dead man and explain their own aggressive reaction.

But public relations will have no bearing when this matter comes before the court. It is then that the public will have a chance to hear the facts of the case, while the court will decide who is culpable or not.