For, police, who are the enforcement arm of the Government's State of Emergency and the curfew regulations for COVID-19, these allegations of abuse of authority are a big public relations black eye. Today, in a press conference, Police Commissioner Chester Williams discussed a few of the issues that Ulysease Roca and his family have raised publicly about the way his detention was handled:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Our records showed that Ulysease Roca was detained by police on April 5th for having violated the curfew law. He was taken to court and pleaded guilty and was fined $3,500 dollars subsequent to that I saw a Facebook post where he had gone live and expressed that he was hit in the face by a police officer whilst in custody. He also showed his jaw to be swollen and in that same live [video], he also made some allegations against some other persons whom he was saying were bullying him. Subsequent to all of this, on April 16th police got a call of a situation on Faber's Road extension and they responded when police got there Ulysease Roca was met and he expressed to the police that he was beaten up by an individual. He was questioned as to who the person was and he said that he didn't know the person. Police had offered to take him to the hospital and he refused to go to the hospital. He was subsequently, left and he went about his business."
"Now we are told that on Friday night he apparently was experiencing some pain and had requested his neighbor's to take him to the hospital and they refused to take him I guess because it was night and subsequent to that, he went to his bed. He was last seen alive I think Saturday and then yesterday his body was found. I am not going to say that his death was caused due to police beating him. I'm not going to say it was not either because from what he said in his video the police hit him on the Jaw. I don't think a hit on the jaw could cause someone's death. And subsequent to that again on the 16th he alleged that someone had beaten him. I don't want us to get ahead of ourselves the post mortem examination will be conducted today at 1 pm. We are going to wait to see what the results of that post-mortem examination is going to be."
"I have been told of a video that was recorded inside precinct two police station, when the young man was detained, and again, I cannot understand why police will be videotaping an arrested person, on their cell phone, making fun of people. And then, the video end up in the public domain. I have a serious issue with that. We have a cell phone policy, and even when that cell phone policy was signed into law for police, some members of the public has issues over it, that the commissioner is trying to control this and control that. But, these are the kind of behaviors that we foresaw, why we decided to implement the cell phone policy. Police officers should not be taking their cell phones to record people, and then, make a mockery of people. Whatever lifestyle Mr. Rocca lived, that is his business."
"Where that video is concerned, that police took and put on social media, I have directed professional standard branch to inquire into it, and the chips will fall where they may. When the postmortem is over, and the doctor tells us what the cause of death is, we will see what angle the investigation will go."
Again, as we told you, a post-mortem from today has indicated that Roca died from "multiple organ failure due to complications related to HIV." His family has said that he tried to get medical help multiple times when he realized that the swelling from the injury to his face was getting worse. They say that he was treated with indifference on multiple trips to the hospital.
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