CoP: Police hope to meet DPP this week on PC Gilkes probe

ACTING Commissioner of Police McDonald Jacob said the police were optimistic of being able to arrange a meeting with Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard some time within the coming week, he told Newsday in a brief telephone conversation on Sunday.

The police are due to present to the DPP the findings of their investigation into the tragic death in April of PC Clarence Gilkes of the Western Division during a police raid in Diego Martin, which some officers had initially blamed on a suspect they had been trying to apprehend but which was later attributed to a case of "friendly fire" by Gilkes' colleagues.

Jacob told Newsday the police will be represented by Senior Supt Chandoo of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and Senior Supt Martin of the Professional Standards Bureau (PSB). Jacob said the police had looked forward to meeting the DPP last week, but this could not have been scheduled successfully.

Last month, the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) issued a very hard-hitting statement saying its independent probe had discovered that certain police officers had abused their power and deliberately mislead Jacob.

“The scientific evidence gathered by the PCA clearly demonstrates PC Gilkes was fatally shot by one of his fellow officers.

“However, before this evidence became apparent, the police officers informed the acting CoP that an unarmed civilian would have shot PC Gilkes, which led to his death, and caused the police service to launch a manhunt in order to ‘deal with the persons responsible for this act’.”