Relatives call for probe after fatal police shooting in Moruga

SASCHA WIL­SON

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­[email protected]

The fa­tal shoot­ing of a 30-year-old labour­er by po­lice in Moru­ga on Fri­day has sparked calls from his fam­i­ly for a thor­ough in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the in­ci­dent.

Po­lice said around 1.30 am, of­fi­cers from the Mara­bel­la Po­lice Sta­tion act­ed on in­for­ma­tion re­gard­ing a rob­bery sus­pect and went to a wood­en struc­ture in St Mary’s Vil­lage along Moru­ga Road.

Be­fore en­ter­ing the struc­ture, po­lice said of­fi­cers an­nounced their pres­ence but en­coun­tered Ro­mario “Bran­don” Bor­neo, al­so called Banky and Loren­zo, who matched the de­scrip­tion of the sus­pect. Of­fi­cers claimed Bor­neo point­ed a firearm at them and de­spite com­mands for him to drop the weapon, he did not com­ply and was shot. He was tak­en to the Princes Town Health Fa­cil­i­ty, where he was pro­nounced dead . A home­made shot­gun and a sin­gle 12-gauge car­tridge were re­port­ed­ly re­cov­ered from the scene.

Speak­ing at their moth­er’s home in Mara­bel­la yes­ter­day, Bor­neo’s old­er sis­ter, Ali­cia Charles, said the fam­i­ly is con­cerned about the lack of in­for­ma­tion be­ing pro­vid­ed by au­thor­i­ties, in­clud­ing the lo­ca­tion of Bor­neo’s body. She said her broth­er’s friends said he was with them and was in­tox­i­cat­ed when he went home.

“I am con­fused as to what took place. His ex-girl­friend went in­to the house, and they saw six gun­shot holes by the head­side of the bed. And, par­ti­cles of his brain residue on the bed.”

Charles said her moth­er went to the Princes Town Po­lice Sta­tion, but they were not giv­en any de­tails as to what hap­pened or the lo­ca­tion of his body. They were told that they would have to wait un­til Mon­day.

Charles said Bor­neo’s ex-girl­friend had in­formed his moth­er about the shoot­ing. But the fam­i­ly has dis­put­ed po­lice claims that he was a rob­bery sus­pect. “That has noth­ing to do with it. When one of his rel­a­tives called (the po­lice) to ask if he have any pend­ing war­rant or want­ed for in­ves­ti­ga­tion, they said ‘no’. So how can you be say­ing that he is a rob­bery sus­pect?”

Charles said that Bor­neo was in Mara­bel­la at his fam­i­ly’s home for about nine months, help­ing with the con­struc­tion of his aunt’s home and left about a week ago.

Plead­ing for in­for­ma­tion and a thor­ough in­ves­ti­ga­tion, she said: “I would like them (po­lice) to con­tact the fam­i­ly. Give us some in­sight what is re­al­ly go­ing on. If you all are of­fi­cers and you have to pro­tect and serve, we sup­posed to know some­thing. We lit­er­al­ly in the dark.”

The sis­ter said she was not aware of Bor­neo hav­ing a gun, and pre­vi­ous crim­i­nal charges against him had been “thrown out” by the court. Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­is­ter Gue­var­ro did not re­spond to mes­sages for com­ment on the mat­ter.