Despite court order; gov’t yet to compensate mom whose son was killed by police

Dameon Belgrave

After being sued for the wrongful death of Dameon Belgrave, breach of his fundamental rights of not being deprived of his life intentionally and assault and battery; the state lost the lawsuit which was brought against it by Donna Sulker through her attorney. The judgement back in 2018 stipulated that the mother of the now dead man be awarded $29, 970,000 (Twenty nine million nine hundred and seventy thousand dollars) as well as court costs but to date, she has received not one cent.

In an interview with BIG Smith Crime Watch last week at her Middle Street, Pouderoyen, West Bank Demerara home, Sulker spoke of what she knows of the judgement.

“So far I haven’t heard anything from anyone more than Mr. Hughes who is giving me an update on what he receives, he wrote couple places but the word he feed me back with was that within three weeks they told him that they were going to pay it from the consolidated fund but then the three weeks pass and that was since in February and no word up to now” Sulker told BIG Smith Crime Watch.

The woman said that she thinks it is ‘past overdue’ as she had said to herself that she will give them (government) sometime at least but the wait now seems to be in vein since this is the fifth month of the year.

The woman said that among the things she plans to do with the compensation for her son’s death is first to have a tomb stone done for his graveside and also have her own home. She related that these are things she had planned a very long time ago.

“Well let me put it this way, Dameon had big plans for me, he wanted me to achieve so much so one of my plan was to purchase myself a home because I am living in a rented house right now and then I am going to do a headstone which I wanted to do a long time but then the funds, so I never got to do it” she explained.

Donna Sulker’s eldest son Dameon Belgrave was shot on the night of October 6, 2012 while standing outside the White Castle Fish Shop with his friends as he was celebrating his 22nd birth anniversary.

The police were at the time engaged in a hot pursuit which started in Guyhoc.  At the time, the policemen who were on the patrol were carrying high powered weapons and also breached several SOPs as they trailed the vehicle outside of their span of control and also failed to radio for backup as the vehicle was eluding them. They also breached the SOP when they fire into a crowd of civilians.

Two policemen were charged and placed before the court while one managed to escape being under close arrest shortly after the incident. He never made a court appearance and was eventually shot dead by the police during a robbery.

“Well I just would like whoever in authority to release the funds or whatever I just hope that they listen and they can take some action so that things can speed up and let me have what is there for me” stated Sulker.