Roseau, Dominica (TDN)
For the second time in about three weeks Police in Dominica have shot an unarmed civilian. In the early hours of this morning, a Police officer allegedly shot an unarmed young man four times in the back on the Bayfront in Roseau.
Details of the attack are sketchy, but onlookers report that the Police officer appeared to be intoxicated, before he pulled his service revolver and shot the defenseless civilian. The victim was rushed to a local hospital where he remains in critical condition.
On 18 June 2022, Police shot and killed Kian Alexander a young man who was unarmed and had a history of mental illness. Alexander had allegedly kidnapped an eleven year old child days earlier, and Police had launched a massive manhunt for his capture. Since her alleged kidnaping the child has not been seen and her whereabouts remain a mystery.
This latest Police shooting paints the picture of a Police force that is clearly out of control and trigger happy with little regard for human life. Just last year, high ranking Police officers burst into the Parliament chambers and threatened to shoot opposition members who had simply refused to obey an illegal order by the Speaker to leave the Parliament.
Evidence of this pattern of Police misconduct goes even further, when in 2012, Police officers opened fire with automatic weapons on villagers in Salisbury who were simply protesting for better roads.
Then on the eve of the elections in 2019 they again opened fire in that same village wounding two villagers. Both victims survived.
A senior Police Officer who spoke to TDN and whose identity is being withheld for fear of retaliation, blame the Police misconduct on the fact that the Police are highly politicised. He pointed to the constant meddling in the work of the Police by National Security Minister Rayburn Blackmoore and Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit.
He also described a situation where promotions within the force are not based on merit or professionalism but rather on those considered to be loyal to the ruling clique.
