‘He was my best friend’ - Mom demands justice after son shot dead by police
Published:Wednesday | December 16, 2020 | 12:17 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
Maurine Douglas has gone without food or sleep, having learnt that her son and best friend, who was due to migrate to be with her in the United States in January, was killed Saturday during an alleged confrontation with a policeman in Portmore.
The deceased man, Ricardo ‘Richie’ Douglas, was killed following a nine-night for a well-known shopkeeper along Keswick Way about 10:40 p.m.
Douglas’ cracking voice was evidence of her grief. She is struggling to compose herself before she flies to Jamaica this weekend.
She spoke of the daily video calls that compensated for the two years she and her son have been apart.
“I am going to [a] human rights [organisation] because this thing can’t go like that. My son and I talk about everything, he was my best friend,” Douglas told The Gleaner from the United States.
CONFLICTING REPORTS
Douglas, who last spoke to her son on Saturday, believes that he was killed in cold blood.
“I’m hearing so many different things, I don’t know what is the right one. Somebody box somebody and somebody started throwing words on him, calling him homosexual and ‘fish’,” she said, referencing a street slur for homosexuals.
Douglas said she received information that plainclothes police failed to do routine investigations before shooting her son dead.
“You can’t just shoot a man like a bird [just] like that. Him a nuh wrongdoer, him a nuh thief, nothing,” the mother said, arguing that Ricardo had never gone to jail.
The police said very little about the incident in a press statement.
The Gleaner understands that the matter has been reported to the Inspectorate and Professional Standards Oversight Bureau, as well as the Independent Commission of Investigations.
Efforts to speak with head of the St Catherine South Police Division, Senior Superintendent Clive Blair, on Monday were unsuccessful, as calls to his cell phone went unanswered.
Residents in the usually quiet community of Cumberland were in shock in the aftermath of the shooting.
A woman told The Gleaner that well-wishers turned out at the wake to support the bereaved family and the gathering dispersed as the night wore on. The tranquil night was soon rattled by ear-splitting gunshots.
“Blood was everywhere ... on the ground and walls,” she said.
The police reported that a Smith & Wesson pistol with nine rounds was recovered by the off-duty corporal and that a woman, believed to be the spouse of the deceased and granddaughter of the shopkeeper, was arrested after she allegedly tried to discard the weapon by throwing it on the roof.
Douglas, who died leaving six children, had reportedly been in a tussle with another man before the arrival of the policeman.
“One of dem chuck him and it cause an altercation, and then dem run go call police. My son never had a firearm. That’s a lie,” the mother said.