True Story - I am going to kill that Police Officer: Allan Palmer

I am going to kill that police officer Allan Palmer was the public expression of Kushu, against the new police to the Georgetown Police Station. Many wondered what the new police did to anger the ignoramus Kushu, who is known for his violent temper. The machete he began to walk with, every way he went, was the tool he proposed to use; to take the life of police officer. 

It all began many months before; I was transferred to the Georgetown Police District in the island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Some months before, a young schoolteacher was trying to get out of a relationship she had started with older man minivan operator, who though he owns all rights to this young educator. Justina Pompey had paid several visits to the Georgetown Police Station and made several reports the most serious amount up to rape and kidnapping.The reports were made against the man she had been trying to terminate her relationship with. She was unable to get the rid of the older man and she was unable to get the police to entertain her reports. 

Kushu, was the subject of Jestina’s reports to the police, the man she was trying to unsuccessfully end her relationship with. Kushu was a popular minivan operator, who plied his trade on the Windward side of the island. He was a reckless but skilled commercial passenger minivan driver, as a result of his driving skills he became very popular with the people from on the Windward side of the Island. He traveled from the Capital Kingstown to Georgetown and beyond almost eight to ten times a day. He was also friendly with the district police especially the police that worked at the Georgetown Police Station; the place where Jestina went on several occasions, to get redress for her plight. Her report against her ex who often, force her into the vehicle he was driving against her will, drive to his home, lock her in his house from Friday and kept her there all weekend; he made frequent visit to his home to pleasure himself without her participation and or consent. He also pass by the house to bring her food so she will not starve to death. He constantly threatened to harm her, if she left the house unless he let her out. 

Jestina was young, afraid and with no one to help her, she tried the police but not even the police was willing to take any actions against her assailant. Jestina had a brother who was also a police, but he could not have gotten involved because of the department he was working. He was an intelligence officer and his identity as a police officer was concealed from the public. However, certain police like me knew who he was and what his role was. William Harry was the Deputy Commissioner of Police and he was the senior intelligence officer. When member of the intelligence arms of the police force had any difficult situation that requires police intervention, the officers are required to report their concerns to their Intelligence Officer or to the Chief Intelligence Officer and he will put the necessary mechanism in place without compromising the identity of the intelligence officer to have the matter dealt with by the uniform police or detectives. 

The situation was serious, the young teacher was faced with a life threatening situation, where on a daily basis she was a victim of serious crimes, and the police was not taking any action to bring some form of redress to the educator’s crime problem. 

Mr. Harry in his capacity of Deputy Commissioner of Police was responsible for the general transfer of the member of the force, and was responsible for my transfer. By this time, I have been known by police management as a hard and dedicated worker, and as a no nonsense fellow as it related to the execution of my lawful duties. 

There was a small transfer that involved a few men that took immediate effect; I was a part of that transfer. I was sent to Georgetown Police Station. On my arrival to Georgetown, The None Commission Officer (NCO) on duty took me out to introduce me to the community. As he drove the vehicle he told me the names of the street, and the locality, he also pointed out, people, residence, businesses and other things of police interest. We were driving north along a lonely farm road, on the eastern side of the road were Banana plantation and on the western side there was dense jungle like vegetation. The NCO quickly brought the police vehicle to a sudden stop. I was wondering what required such urgency, I did not see anything out of the ordinary, and then he reversed the police vehicle and he began to speak to a young woman; whose name I later learned to be Jestina. She and the NCO appear to be friends, she boarded the vehicle and both Jestina and the NCO engaged in discussion on a matter I had no knowledge about. 

Jestina later disembarked the transportation at her home, after which we return to the station. The following day the young woman came to the Georgetown Police Station, where I was on duty as the station orderly. The responsibility of the station orderly, is to entertain all reports and to ensure that all reports and all activities that occurred in the police station are recorded in the Station Diary. This entry must outlined as much detail as possible and should include, the date and time the person came to the station; the date, the time and the place and the type of incidents they are reporting. The reports must be entered into the appropriate register e.g. Crime in the crime register, petty offence in the petty offence Register, accident in the accident register etc. Each report must be cross-referenced with the appropriate register with the Station Diary. This give any senior officer the ability to get an overview of what had happened in the station over the period. 

It was the station’s officer responsible to update the Crime and Accident registers, but it fall onto the responsibility of the Station Orderly to update the Crime Register, accident register, prisoner property register; the exhibit register among others. 

When Jestina arrived to the station’s office, I though she came to speak to the NCO who give her the ride home on the day before. However, she informed me that she came to speak to me. Therefore, I took her into the little room that was reserved for holding private discussion with members of the community who was making reports. It was then she disclosed to me, the horrific situation that confronted her. What made the matter worst, was the fact that she told me, she came to the police station several time before and reported the matters to the police and they did nothing, no statement was recorded, no crime report entered; absolutely nothing was done. 

This was disturbing, so I went back into the station office, I pulled out the Crime Register and I panned through that log only to discover there was no record of a report made by Jestina. I went through the Station Diary, and there was an entry where Jestina came to the station making a complaint. However, the detail of the complaint did not amount to anything; and there were no cross reference, therefore the officer who took the report did not take a report of a crime. 

I went and I discussed the matter with the NCO in charge of the station. To my surprise he said, “the man loves the woman,” and that was it; I could not believe this was coming out of the mouth of a police supervisor. I then said to him, this man is accused of kidnapping, rape and violence related crimes and you guys, have not taken a report from her.

I went back to speak to Jestina; I said to her, I know this is a relationship issue and there is a trend with such complainant, when people have a misunderstanding in their relationship they try to use the police as a tool of revenge. However, I want you to return home and come back to the station tomorrow and I will take a statement from you and enter a report. 

The following morning, bright and early before she went to work Jestina came to the station and I recorded a statement from her, however, I had problems from the supervisor entering the report in the crime register; the first problem had to do with the location where some of the incidents took place. The most serious of the incidents that she was reporting occurred in the Stubbs Police District. 

There were people behind the scenes that was trying to ensure that this matter die a natural death; they were not willing to deal with the lady’s report and for reasons still unknown to me, they were hampering me from bringing resolution to the problem that confronted this school teacher. 

I had recorded a statement from the victim and I have made the necessary entries in the station diary; however, it is not a criminal report until it is entered into the Crime Register. It was Thursday morning and there was a report of a dead man in the sea at Sandy Bay. Cpl. “Wanger” James who was transferred from the narcotic unit to the Georgetown Police Station a week before I arrived at Georgetown and I was delegated the responsibility to look into that matter. We discovered that the decease man was a Dominican and we also had a person of interest into the homicide, it was our responsibility to determine if the homicide was a murder or an accident. We took the person of interest into custody on suspicion of Murder and on unlawful entry into the country, while we investigate the matter. 

The prisoner had one concern and that was to get word to his family and the family of the decease of the current situation. Because we could not make overseas call from the police station. We took the prisoner to the pay phone which was located on Bay Road, in the area of the Post office and the National Commercial Bank. I was about three feet away from the suspect with my back turn to the road, observing the suspect, James was standing by the pay phone operating the phone and making the initial contact to ensure that we were not assisting in the cover up of a crime. The suspect in hand cuffs standing next to Cpl. James, awaiting to speak to the contact. He was allowed to pass on specific information, as to where he was, that he was involved in an accident at sea and his traveling companion is dead, and they must informed the relative of his traveling companion of his location and his death. 

While James and I stood there in the slightly lights sidewalk, I heard with a voice behind me say, are you Police Palmer, I took a step to my right and I turn around in the process. I saw a man who appear to be in his fifties standing behind me. I then said I am Palmer. I hear you want to see me he said. I replied to the man I do not know who you are and I have never requested to see anyone. 

He then asked: “Are you the officer who is dealing with the report that was made by Jestina. I said years I am, then he introduced himself as Kashu. I said O yes I will like to speak to you, but I am busy now, then I invited him to the station in an hour. He said he was unable to so I requested that he come  to the station tomorrow. I could not take any chance because I was not sure if this fellow was who he said he was or an accomplice in the homicide or his objective. I did not want to compromised the safety of my fellow officer, the prisoner of my safety. 

However, the man insisted that he will not be able to return to the station and proceeded to tell me some stories to justify his actions and to get me to abandon the matter. I told him if all that you have told me is the truth, they are all good reason for any sensible person to abandon the relation and leave the girl along. I also told him with no uncertain terms that the reports that is made against him are all serious reports and he need to return to the station as soonest so we can resolve this matter. I also pointed out to him that it is not convenient for me to address anything he have said or to give him my focus at this time because we are dealing with another serious incident right now. 

James become concerned at the fact that this suspect was able to locate us when we were out dealing with a sensitive matter and he wondered, who told this suspect in the Jestina's matter of the report made against him but more importantly how told him where to find us. 

I had the weekend off and I returned to work early on Monday morning, on my arrival to the station, a phone call came into the station that, Kushu was seen hiding behind the wall of the school where Jestina worked with a cutlass/machete in his hand. the reports also said that the machete was sharpened back and belly. Jestina’s collegue and best friend Jasmine Jackson apparently saw Kashu and suspected that he was up to know good, and try to get word to Jestina to inform her of the current situation. At that time, Jestina was on her way to work, she was leisurely walking up the road that lead to the school, where he ex-boyfriend was awaiting her. She was walking into a hidden danger; everyone was on edge, the news quickly spread, that Kushu was hidden away behind a wall near to the school awaiting the arrival of his ex-girlfriend.

Most people were afraid to get involved because Kushu had a reputation of being an ignoramus and they did not want to cross him. Here we have this poor lady about to unknowingly walked into the valley of the shadow of her death and no one was willing to warned her of the waiting danger. However, someone told her what they have observed and she quickly got into the next minivan and went to the Georgetown Police Station. 

While Jestina was on the way to the police station, Myself and one of the None Commission Officers, who have been ignoring the reports of crimes against the school teacher was dispatched to deal with the matter. I was driving the transport, the station had a faulty revolver that would not have been effective in this case, so the NCO grab a long baton, and we were off to try to apprehand the machete wheeling assailant. By the time we got to the scene of the incident the assailant saw the police vehicle coming and ran away from the scene. We search the general area where the assailant was but he was nowhere to be found. 

This was the beginning of two long week of cat and mouse. News reach the police that the Assailant Kushu was heard publicly saying that he is going to kill the teacher and then he is going to kill police Allan Palmer. Strangely, I was not afraid of Kushu and I was not afraid for my life. That was because of the fact I had an invincible mentality syndrome. I was not afraid and honestly believed that if the assailant attacked me he will not get the opportunity to use his machete against me. 

Kushu had an advantage, he had a vehicle, the Minivan that he was haired to transport passengers with and he used the vehicle strategically. He was using this vehicle as a tool of escape. He was in the habit of parking the vehicle in a strategic place; after which he walked to his destination with his machete in hand. He had the entire community on edge. The station was flooded with phone calls of sighting of the assailant. Each time we arrive on the scene where Kushu was seen, he was never there. 

By this time, the Corporal was expressing his worries and dissatisfaction with the series of events. Each time a sighting of the Machete bearing assailant was reported to the officer in charge of the district: Cornelius Charles; his instruction was always clear; Instruct the same Corporal and Palmer to go to and deal with the incident. I was always ready to go, I wanted the assailant off the street. Unfortunately, it did not matter how fast I drove we could never catch up with the assailant. 

I asked the Corporal to request the owner of the van whom he knew, to take the vehicle from the assailant on the grounds his vehicle were used to commit several serious crimes and is being used as an aid, in a potential violent crime. I cause this plan to be put in place to take away Kushu’s means of transportation and in turn, take away his ability of evading the police. Kushu was one of the best minivan drivers there was, and he love going at extremely fast rate of speed; it mattered not if his vehicle was loaded down with passengers. Added to that he also knew all of the back roads in the district, I was of the opinion if he was without a vehicle we will be able to catch him. 

The owner of the minivan did not take his van from Kushu, apparently the owner was afraid of Kushu and did not want to anger him any further by taking the van from him. He was not sure how the man who appear to have been having a mental breakdown would react and he was not willing to find out. One day, we got a call that alerted us of the sighting of Kushu, when the Corporal and I arrived on the scene, I noticed the van Kushu normally drive was parked at the side of a dirt road, next to the beach; but Kushu was nowhere to be seen. I told the Corporal, I am going to remove all the wheels from the vehicle. 

The Corporal insisted that I could not remove the tiers from the van and he gave some useless explanation as to why I could not take the actions I wanted to. Although the corporal was my supervisor, I told him, I do not care about that, this vehicle was used in the commission of some serious crimes, and it is being used to execute dangerous threats to the life of a member of the civilian population and to the police and I am removing the wheels from the vehicle. 

I went into the police vehicle, I got the wheel spanner and the jack, I took my time I Jacked up the van and I removed the tiers one by one replacing the tiers with concrete blocks that were next to an unfinished building nearby. I put each of Cushu’s vehicle tiers into the police vehicle. Went I was finished, I went back to the Georgetown Police Station. Where I made a record of the actions I took and the property I ceased. I also took the liberty to secure the properties that I ceased. 

The next day Jestina have left St. Vincent and the Grenadines on the first flight out of the country that morning. She left in fear for her life. While I was at the station, I got information that Kushu who was now without any means of transportation, had boarded a minivan heading to Kingstown. The Corporal was not at the station, so the Sergeants of police in charge of the station and I went to the incident; our first objective was to catch up with the minivan before Cushu reach his destination and to apprehend him. 

I got a visual of the minivan in Bridgetown Biabou, about half of a mile from the Town of Biabou where the assailant lived. However, several vehicles separated me from the minivan which transported the assailant. 

At that era of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force, the police vehicles were not equipped with emergency lights and sirens, so we were limited in to what we were able to do. Most of the time when we were in pursuit of an assailant we took a lot of risk. Now I was about to take a big risk. The roads Biabou are narrow, and there were open drainages on the northern side of the road and a cliff on the southern side of the road in most cases the cliff were more than fifty feet abyss and below was the beach or some houses. Any mistake was dangerous to me, my passengers and other road users and may cause lost of life.

I hoped no vehicles was coming in the opposing direction; as soon as the road was clear I sank the accelerator, and I quickly change a series of gears to cause the vehicle to achieve maximum acceleration in the shortest period of time and I flew pass no less than four minivans and two cars that made up the line of vehicle that separated, the police from the vehicle that the Assailant was in. This sudden and unexpected move by me caught the Sergeant by surprised; his immediate response was to hold onto the bar at the glove compartment in the vehicle while pressed his feet into the floor of the vehicle, and he jammed his back into the back of the seat wherein he sat which reinforced his body just in case there was an impact. Then the Sergeants exclaimed with great concern in his voice “Palmer what yo doing”.

I manage to make it to the front of the line of vehicles that were ahead of me safely. I notice the vehicle that was carrying Kushu stopped to carry out some passenger transaction, I then pulled the police vehicle in front of the vehicle that Kushu was being transported in, I was mindful to cause the vehicle back wheel to skid making an loud noise that would have alarmed the passengers in the van and as such show Kushu the urgency and the seriousness of which the police was taking this matter. 

I knew the police in the station where I have been working was afraid of Kushu, So I took the lead and I then jumped out of the police vehicle and the Sergeant followed me, I went to the van passenger door and I said Kushu come out of the vehicle. It was at this time the sergeant, came and said to me Palmer let me deal with him, because you are too involved with the incident. I stepped aside and allow the Sergeant to make the arrest and to handcuff him. We then drove, to Kingstown where the assailant was charge and taken to court. 

Kushu was Fortunate, Justina never return to St. Vincent and his case was dismissed for a lack of prosecution. A few years later, the police arrested and charged Kushu once again; but this time he was charged for wounding with intent. Kushu attacked his live in girlfriend with a machete and she was not as fortunate as Jestina was. Kushu chopped up the woman as a resulted the woman, his girlfriend was hospitalize with several chop would about her body. He was later found guilty and sentence to do a prison sentence for that crime.