Six years after losing her son, Shaquille Grant, who was allegedly gunned down at the hands of Police, Shonette Adams, who mounted civil proceedings in the High Court against the State and the implicated Police Officers, is seeking over G$10 million in damages.
One of the ranks implicated in the shooting was killed in 2014 in a foiled robbery attempt; another was placed on an international wanted list while the other accused was acquitted of the lad’s murder in 2015.
In a writ against the Attorney General of Guyana, and Policemen Warren Blue, Jamal Lewis and Terrance Wallace, the applicant, on behalf of her son’s estate, is suing the named parties over what she contends was her son’s wrongful death on September 11, 2012. She is seeking exemplary damages in the sum of G$10 million, interest, and costs in her December 18, 2014 suit. Exemplary damages, also called punitive damages, are usually awarded when the defendant’s acts are deemed “malicious, violent, oppressive, fraudulent, wanton or grossly reckless”.
The 17-year-old young man was shot dead at Caesar Street in his home village of Agricola, Greater Georgetown, and the Police’s version of events was that they were chasing him and his friends when one of them, Romel Bollers, shot at ranks, who returned fire, causing Grant’s demise.
Shonette Adams
Blue, Lewis and Wallace were all charged for the teen’s murder, but Wallace was the only one who stood trial for the killing. Denying that he was the one who shot Grant, Wallace was acquitted in a 2015 High Court trial during which he had given sworn evidence, telling Justice Navindra Singh and the jury that he saw Grant, Bollers, Troy Greenidge, Nicholas Eastman, and Jamal Henry, called “Tuna”, in a yard and he instructed that they “freeze”, having informed them that he was a Police Officer. Wallace said that it was then that Bollers shot at him.
Bollers had, however, maintained this was not true, claiming that neither he nor any of his friends opened fire on the Police, nor did they have a weapon in their possession.
Two days before Grant’s mother filed her claim in 2014, wanted Policeman Blue along with an accomplice was shot and killed by fellow Police Officers in a foiled robbery at a Montrose, East Coast Demerara supermarket. Jamal Lewis was meanwhile placed on the world’s largest international Police organisation’s wanted list as he and the now deceased Blue evaded jail time for the teen’s killing. The boy’s mother is being represented by Attorney Nigel Hughes.
The trial commenced on September 26, 2018 and current Attorney General Basil Williams was a no-show on that occasion. However, a lawyer from within the AG’s Chambers, Tiffany Castello, appeared and requested an adjournment. As such, the matter was called on Monday, and was expected to continue on November 22, 2018 before Justice Gino Persaud.
