| By: Javone Vickerie– Father says son never recovered from traumaMany Guyanese may remember the tragic events of 2001 but none of them can compare to the touching story of 12-year-old Vincent Griffith Jnr who had his leg amputated after he was shot during a police raid in New Amsterdam, BerbiceThe now 24 year-old was mistakenly shot by police on December 12,Cheap Jerseys From China, 2001 at Angoy’s Avenue, New Amsterdam.Police were raiding a house in search of wanted man, Mark McKenzie. They later said that they were surprised by the young boy who was hiding in a wardrobe in the house.Following the incident the young man along with his father initiated a suit in the Supreme Court, seeking compensation for the injuries and for the scars and trauma Vincent sustained.Reports in the media stated that Griffith Jnr had been offered $1.7M as ex-gratia compensation from the government.Not accepting liability for Griffith’s shooting,China Jerseys Online, Attorney General Doodnauth Singh (SC) on that occasion wrote in a letter to Griffith’s attorney Joseph Harmon, that the “State is amenable to paying the ex-gratia compensation and the cost for prosthetic legs for Griffith as he grows older…”Singh further indicated in the May 23, 2002 letter, his availability to meet to discuss and conclude the settlement. The letter stated that the $1.7M figure was computed after a detailed analysis of the principles and case law.The boy’s father,Cheap Sports Jerseys, Vincent Griffith Snr, told other publications in that time that he was not willing to accept the offer, which he described as disrespectful to his son who had dreamed of becoming a football player.The interviewNearly 12 years later,Cheap Jerseys From China, I had an opportunity to sit down with the boy’s father 59-year-old Vincent Griffith Snr who lamented that since the 2001 shooting his son never overcame the trauma he faced having his leg amputated.Griffith Snr who now resides in the United States of America, “I go America and come back they said they take the story out of court to settle it.I go two, three times and all I keep hearing they need to mek appointment and when you ready for them no body never there”.Every time he returned to Guyana to update the matter there is never a solution to the issue. The father bemoaned that since the shooting incident, his son’s life changed for the worse. He was recently sentenced to 40 years imprisonment in the US for maliciously attacking a cleaner at an Airport in Virginia.“It does bring tears to me eyes when people ask me bout me son. Me son didn’t had no kind of life after then.Like the shooting and the police just cross me son. I tek me son and carry he to the States in 2002 and all the time he de doing good going to school,” the weeping father said.Griffith told me that his son later received a prosthetic leg through a US insurance company and was progressing excellently until one day on a trip back to Guyana, the past of the 24 year-old began to haunt him.“When we come here couple years back we go to Prime News and like two days after the news, me and me son see the man wuh shoot he, Karim Baksh, promoted to inspector,” the man said.Griffith further explained that his intention on that trip to Guyana was to leave his son here but after Griffith Jnr begged him to return to the US he took him back with him.“If I de know I should have left him right here.”The moment his son’s life changed“He stay just suh and start freak out because he seeing a set ah flashbacks like Baksh shooting he again so we try fuh get him help but nobody ain’t do nutten. We run all over and he just keep getting worse,” the father said.Griffith Snr said that his son would go missing from his home on a number of occasions, leaving his entire family traumatized. The man explained that his son would regularly make trips to the Virginia Airport in his wheelchair.“Nuff time the police dem does have to calling me fuh I come for me son and then they got nuff times they police dem does have to bring he home,David Njoku Jersey,” the father cried.Young Griffith’s life changed forever, after he attacked a cleaner at the Virginia Airport.“He gone again nobody ain’t know where the man deh. One day I deh sit down watching TV and all I see is a news come up with me son. Me son beat up some woman at the airport,” the father said.The father told me that his son was later charged with rape, attempted murder and abduction. On his visit to the Red Onion State Prison in Virginia the still grieving father said that his son explained to him that he had a flashback of 2001 while a cleaner was sweeping.“How the lady been sweeping in the same motion it he remember Baksh shooting he and he start attack the lady and he seh from long he de want hold on pon Baksh fuh doing he wuh he do he and he start punch up the lady,” the father explained.Griffith Snr said that his son was charged by the courts he was then offered a plea deal by Virginia Police.“I told him not to take no plea deal and they give he a public defender.”Griffith Snr said that his son after two years accepted a plea deal which would allow him to be discharged of three charges and only serve a three-year sentence.“I tell he no don’t accept it let it go to the jury so that the Jury would understand. They even bring four different Psychiatrists fuh see if he could stand trail and all them said he could stand trial,” the father said.The crying father told me that he sat in the court room patiently waiting for his son’s case to be called only to be stricken by the news that the his son will serve a forty year sentence for the crime he committed.Griffith explained that because his son was never sworn in as an US citizen,Jerseys NFL Wholesale, chances are that after his forty years sentence he will be deported to Guyana. |
