Police Lance Corporal Kristoff De Nobrega, accused of fatally shooting 23-year-old Quindon Bacchus from Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara (ECD), has been ordered to stand trial in the High Court.
De Nobrega, 24, of Canal Dam, Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara, was committed for trial by Magistrate Fabayo Azore at the Vigilance Magistrates’ Court. The charges stem from an incident on June 10, 2022, at Haslington New Scheme, ECD, where De Nobrega allegedly shot Bacchus, leading to his death.
Magistrate Azore found sufficient evidence to warrant a trial in the High Court, scheduling it for the next available session of the Demerara Assizes. De Nobrega will remain in custody pending trial.
Additionally, two other law enforcement officers, Lance Corporal Thurston Simon, 26, of Bareroot, ECD, and Cadet Officer Dameion McClennon, 37, of Patterson, Turkeyen, ECD, face charges of obstructing justice by providing false information during the investigation. Their case is ongoing at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
Bacchus, a father of one, was allegedly shot six times about his body following an encounter with Police ranks. It was reported that on June 10, 2022, ranks were conducting an intelligence-led operation in the Haslington New Scheme, ECD, after receiving some information earlier in the day.
While there, the ranks contacted a 22-year-old construction worker, who provided them with certain information. As a result, the ranks went to Bacchus’s home, where he was seen with a firearm in his possession. He had reportedly intended to sell the gun to Lance Corporal De Nobrega. The plainclothes rank, who was armed, made arrangements to purchase the firearm from Bacchus, who left and returned with the firearm.
In the process of handing over the firearm to the rank, an alarm was raised, resulting in Bacchus running in a southern direction and discharging a round in the rank’s direction. Police Headquarters said that the rank drew his service pistol and returned fire.
Police said Bacchus then ran further south and jumped into a yard, and the rank gave chase. While the rank was near Bacchus, the man allegedly discharged several other rounds towards the rank, and the rank took cover and returned fire, hitting the now deceased man about his body.
Bacchus reportedly fell to the ground, along with the firearm, which was later identified as a .380 pistol with a magazine that still had one round. He was picked up in a conscious state and escorted to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where he died while receiving treatment.
Violent protest
Days after Bacchus’s death, a violent protest erupted at several ECD villages. The protest led to several vendors at the Mon Repos Market being robbed while their stalls were vandalised and goods looted. Some of the protesters who were armed with cutlasses, knives, iron bars, and other handy weapons, destroyed vendors’ goods, burnt stalls and vehicles, shattered windscreens of vehicles, and even terrorised vendors.
The vendors were compensated by the Government. Threats were also made against President Dr Irfaan Ali’s life which led to the arrest of a 35-year-old man of Golden Grove, ECD, Marvin Richmond, known as “Wakie”, a psychiatric patient.
Following the protest, 16 men were arrested and charged with the offence of riotous behaviour.
