Son suffering seizures following police encounter, mother claims

An irate mother is alleging that police brutality has brought on her son’s suffering seizures.

In an interview with Barbados TODAY, Melissa Walcott charged that since being hit in the head with a gun by a police officer last Wednesday, her 20-year-old son had suffered two seizures.

She said he had never suffered from a seizure before the alleged confrontation with police.

Walcott said as a result, he had been detained at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) for treatment.

In recalling what happened, Walcott, who resides in Kingsland Gardens, Christ Church, said her son was at home last Wednesday when two friends came to visit him and he subsequently left with them.

She said her son told her that the two friends dropped him off at a location and left.

“Whatever happened, the police were on the scene. He ran and after he ran he said he was held by the police and the police hit him in his head with the gun. He didn’t say what gun, how big the gun was, nothing.

“That happened on Wednesday and he also received a laceration to his right knee which required surgery. He cannot remember how he got the laceration but the cut in his head he is saying that he was ‘gun-butted’ by the police,” Walcott said.

The upset mother said that injury to his head required “four to five” stitches.

She said on Saturday her son was discharged from the QEH into police custody

Walcott said she spoke to him and he complained of feeling unwell.

“Yesterday [Sunday] I got a call that he fell and he burst his mouth. I tried to talk to him but he’s not really corresponding like how he usually does.

“After he fell a doctor was called to see the wound and when I got to the hospital the doctor told me that he had seizures and he believes those seizures are in connection with the blow to the head,” the distraught mother said.

“My child never had a seizure before, never once. Now, he had two seizures – one in the cell and the second one he had in front of the doctor and the doctor summoned an ambulance and took him to the QEH.”

Walcott said she had been told by the doctor that her son had also suffered kidney failure.

“He is 20 and he never had a seizure before. He isn’t even in the system for medication…Now he’s complaining for headaches all of the time,” she complained.

She admitted though, that her son had a previous run in with the law.

She said he had spent a year on remand at HMP Dodds after being charged in connection with a shooting incident. He had been out on bail since December 2019.

Her attorney-at-law Rasheed Belgrave, told Barbados TODAY that the country’s Constitution protects all citizens against any physical abuse while in police custody.

“If what Ms Walcott is saying is true then the situation is a very severe one. It is an allegation of her son being gun-butt which had led to seizures so that is very serious and something which needs to be investigated,” Belgrave said.

He said he would also advise his client to make a complaint to the Office of Professional Responsibility.

Efforts to reach Commissioner of Police Tyrone Griffith and police public relations officer Inspector Rodney Inniss proved unsuccessful up to press time.  (randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)