PUBLIC SHOOTING ON PRASLIN ENDANGERING LIVES!

Lewis Vidot was shot in the knee IRA style by Anti Drugs and Marine Services squad on Praslin.

The Local Police Force has once again used a fire arm recklessly endangering the life of a number of people in the process. According to eyewitnesses last Tuesday, 26th June, 2007, in an incident on Praslin at The Ocean Plaza shopping centre, at Grand Anse, personnel from the Anti Drugs and Marine Services known locally as the ADAMS squad, swooped violently into the Arcade and without warning fired several shots indiscriminately at an assailant. One bullet imbedded itself on the plastic frame of a shop window at the Ocean Plaza arcade.

Apparently, they were after one Lewis Vidot, 30 years old, who was amongst the crowd. Witnesses say the police shot him after he had fallen down while trying to run from the officers, virtually kneecapping him in IRA style. Lewis was shot in the upper part of his leg. He was not armed nor did they find anything on him after they searched him. His wound was so serious that he was transported to Mahe to be admitted to the emergency unit at the Victoria hospital where a bullet was removed from just above his right knee.

We contacted the police for their version of the incident. Unfortunately, as is now always the case, our enquiry was ignored. Although they promised to return our call, at the time of going to press, we still had not heard from anyone from Police Headquarters in Victoria. We also visited Lewis Vidot at the Victoria Hospital to get his version of events leading up to his hospitalisation.

Vidot told us that this is an old score between himself and the ADAMS squad. According to him they have been trying to frame him for a long time. They have even set fire to his vehicle on one occasion. A certain individual within ADAMS, Vidot alleged, has warned him that they will keep coming after him until they put him behind bars or six feet under. Judging by the incident on Praslin last week the ADAMS squad is ahead by a gun shot.

The concerns of this newspaper is not about who is wrong or right between Lewis Vidot and the Anti Drugs and Marine Service unit. It is rather, the alarming way in which the ADAMS squad have in the past and still continue using dangerous firearms, guns and AK47, in an indiscriminate manner putting at risk the lives of passers by as well as unarmed suspects. The police, it seems, does not have and does not intend to adopt a respectable rule of engagement. Neither is there accountability for the use of a fire arm. In a peaceful and civilised society such as ours, police should be issued with firearms only when lives of innocent people and themselves are at risk. Chasing an unarmed suspect in a crowded shopping arcade and firing a weapon indiscriminately is criminal in intent

Ocean Plaza Shopping Center where Vidot was by the ADMANS squad.

In the incident at the Ocean Plaza Arcade at Grand Anse, Praslin, the police used a firearm in an area full of people. Although Lewis it seems made a run for it, there was absolutely no reason to use a firearm in an attempt to stop him from running. In a society where the rule of law prevails, it would have been premeditated murder if Lewis Vidot had been killed by the police officers chasing him; equally, to shoot a suspect while he was immobile and helpless on the floor, even if in the leg, amounts to an act intended to cause grave bodily harm. Soldiers in the heat of battle in Iraq have been taken to task and imprisoned for doing less.

It is time that the police adopt a code of engagement that is common in all democratic and civilised countries. The Police Commissioner should take full personal responsibility to see that, only individuals with good character are issued with dangerous weapons, and they should be properly trained in the use of firearms. The use of firearms should be limited to occasions when innocent lives are at risk or the life of a police officer is at risk.

Any use of firearm by a police officer should be independently investigated in a transparent manner, especially when it has caused injuries. Moreover, if death has occurred it should be the subject of an independent judicial inquiry. The right to life is our first Fundamental Human Right. The constitution explicitly states, “no one shall be deprived of life intentionally”. There is no exception for the police. The police are there to protect lives not to endanger them.