Four months after 45-year-old Peter Headley, a taxi driver of Dowding Street, Kitty, Georgetown, was fatally shot by police while in custody, the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) has completed the review of the investigative file.
This information was relayed to the press by Police Commissioner Nigel Hoppie on Wednesday. He added that the file will now be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for review and advice. This is now months after the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) had completed its investigation into the shooting of Headley.
“The OPR is the unit responsible for conducting these investigations, and they are required to conduct very professional and comprehensive investigations. We made contact with the Chairman of the Police Complaints Authority, and he indicated that he has completed the file and it will be sent to the DPP in a short while, very shortly.
“As a matter of fact, we spoke to him yesterday (Tuesday) and he indicated that it is completed, so it will be headed over to the DPP,” the Top Cop told reporters during a press conference on Wednesday.
Headley was shot and killed on May 15, 2021 at Nandy Park, East Bank Demerara after he and another man were arrested by Police. Police had said in a release that, at about 20:45h, ranks intercepted a motor car with Headley and the other man. Headley was at the time the driver of the vehicle.
However, a search was conducted on the vehicle, during which a television set suspected to have been stolen during an armed robbery at Herstelling, EBD, on May 11, 2021 was found. As such, the two men were arrested.
It was reported that Headley was placed in the front passenger seat of the civilian vehicle which was being driven by a Policeman. There was an armed Police rank in the back seat. The other suspect was placed in the Police vehicle with the other ranks.
On their way to the Providence Police Station, Headley allegedly reached under the seat and pulled out an object, which the Police said “appeared to be a firearm.”
Upon seeing this, the armed rank who was sitting at the back seat discharged a round that hit Headley to his body.
He was taken to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre, where he succumbed to his injuries while receiving treatment.
A post-mortem examination had revealed that Headley died of a single gunshot wound that perforated his lungs.
The two ranks who were in the vehicle at the time of the shooting were initially placed under close arrest as the matter was reported to the OPR for an investigation to be launched. In July, the Commissioner related that the ranks are now on open arrest pending the outcome of the investigation.
However about one week after his death, Headley’s relatives picketed the Home Affairs Ministry, calling for justice. The family is contending that the man was not a bandit.
