00:00Over the last two weeks, Christopher Samaru has canvassed the East-West Corridor searching
00:05for factual information and solid answers leading up to his son's demise.
00:10Was he fleeing police from Maloney?
00:12Did he actually go to Maloney?
00:15Was it a case of mistaken identity?
00:17Did the police get it wrong?
00:19Did they target the right vehicle?
00:22Questions that Samaru had sought to get the answers to as he spent several days underground
00:26in Maloney and St. Augustine trying to piece together the final moments of the life of
00:31his son, Joshua Samaru, who was fatally shot and killed here at Bassie Street Extension,
00:37Dukising Street, St. Augustine that was captured by this camera at a nearby Mandiru.
00:44And in so doing, there were other narratives he discovered speaking to persons he said
00:49wished to remain anonymous.
00:51I heard there was a robbery at Maloney, and the three suspects, they eluded the police
01:02up there.
01:05And the police up there radioed another police squad that was doing an operation down here.
01:13And while they radioed, I don't know if they gave the right number or what, but when my son
01:19was coming through the back here, they just sprayed the car down and killed him and injured
01:25his girl.
01:26Samaru said he was strongly inclined to believe that the information provided to the police
01:31may not have been entirely accurate, and it could well have been his son being in the
01:36wrong place at the wrong time.
01:39I think it was a big mistake in identity.
01:45I have to say that if you have a gun, you don't just take it out and start a shoot.
01:53You first apprehend the suspect.
01:56Find out his information, his ID, etc., etc.
02:01Find out from whoever you got the call from if that person matches what they are asking
02:07for.
02:08And then you proceed from there.
02:10You don't watch I can't spray down like that.
02:11Then anybody on the highway driving normal, no problem, even a person who is working taxi,
02:20so you can spray them down and kill everybody in that vehicle?
02:23That is ludicrous.
02:24Talk had been rife for weeks that his son and daughter-in-law had taken the police on
02:30a street chase from Maloney to St. Augustine.
02:33But Samaru said as far as he knew, his son was heading to Bamboo to drop off his wife at
02:38his home for a hairdressing appointment, a route he normally takes to avoid traffic even
02:43when he picks up his daughter from school in San Juan.
02:46That Maloney business, it's, I have no inclination, I have no idea, I have no clue of what, where
02:55that come out from.
02:56All I heard, there were three bandits in Maloney, and it ended up to be him and his girlfriend
03:03was in the accident.
03:05So then, what about the theory of bandits in a white Toyota Aqua, the same make, model
03:11and colour of the car Samaru was driving?
03:15Is there any truth to the fact that the car with these alleged three bandits, police chased
03:22them but lost them, and then they radioed for assistance closer down into the St. Augustine
03:27area?
03:28Yes, yes.
03:29This is what I believe.
03:30Now, I can't believe that police from all the way to Maloney would radio police down at
03:37St. Augustine and give them bad information.
03:42That is crazy.
03:43You have to be exact, you have to have everything exact, number, description, people, all of
03:50that before you draw your firearm, before you draw your firearm, and don't even fire
03:55as yet.
03:57Firing is the last procedure for a police officer or anyone with a firearm.
04:01But what was also telling on our visit to St. Augustine on Tuesday, as we walked along the
04:06street where the shooting happened, several residents confirmed to us that following the
04:10police raid that was captured on camera, hours after the police shooting that was also captured
04:15on camera, police officers entered the homes of some of the residents and removed the footage
04:20contained in these cameras overlooking the street.
04:24One woman fearful of police retribution, speaking without revealing identity, said police intimidated
04:30many of the residents and ordered them to hand over the footage of the shooting just moments
04:35after.
04:36They really didn't want anyone to share that footage, she said.
04:40One other resident remarked they were possibly doing damage control.
04:44Mark Besant, TV6 News.
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