OPR Launches Probe After 19-Year-Old Sophia Labourer Shot by Police; Family Alleges Case of Mistaken Identity
By| Travis Chase | HGP Nightly News|
GEORGETOWN, GUYANA – The Police Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) has initiated an emergency investigation after a 19-year-old labourer from Block ‘E’ Sophia was shot and wounded by law enforcement officers inside his yard on Thursday morning.
While the Guyana Police Force (GPF) maintains that the teenager was actively fleeing a mobile patrol unit in connection with an armed robbery investigation, the youth’s family has strongly rejected this narrative, claiming that he was a victim of mistaken identity and excessive force.
The Police Account of the Pursuit
According to the official police incident log, ranks on active mobile patrol duty within the Sophia area received a dispatch stating that a suspect matching the teenager’s general description was wanted for a recent robbery under arms.
Police stated that ranks spotted the young man riding a motorcycle through the neighborhood and initiated a pursuit. Investigators report that upon reaching his residence, the rider abandoned the motorcycle at the gateway and ran into the yard.
During the ensuing encounter inside the private property, a police rank discharged a single round from his service firearm. The round struck the teenager, identified as Jukeem Scipio, in the left side of his abdomen. Scipio was immediately apprehended and transported by the ranks to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), where he remains admitted under guard in stable condition. Crime scene technicians later recovered one 9mm spent shell from the yard and have lodged the rank’s service weapon for ballistic examination.
Mother Details Terrifying Yard Encounter
The teenager’s family has strongly disputed the police department’s version of events, presenting a much more harrowing account of the shooting. Speaking with reporters outside the hospital, Scipio’s mother revealed that the bullet traveled through her son’s abdomen and is currently lodged dangerously close to his spine.
She further alleged that the initial shooting was followed by immediate police intimidation inside their yard.
“After my son was already shot and bleeding on the ground, the officers came over him and pointed a gun directly at his head,” the mother claimed during her press sit-down. “I had to run out and throw myself into the yard to intervene. I asked them why they wanted to kill my son. They had no answers for me right there.”
The family claims that senior investigators later visited them and quietly acknowledged that the tactical unit may have chased and targeted the wrong individual. The Guyana Police Force has not publicly addressed these specific allegations of post-shot intimidation or mistaken identity.
OPR Oversight and Judicial Next Steps
Because the incident involved the discharge of a service firearm resulting in injury inside a private residence, the OPR has assumed full jurisdiction over the case file.
The independent oversight division has mandated that all ranks involved in the mobile patrol loop be placed on open monitoring while their service logs are cross-examined. Investigators are scheduled to conduct comprehensive recorded interviews with both the responding police ranks and civilian eye-witnesses from Block ‘E’ Sophia over the weekend to determine if standard operating procedures for the use of lethal force were violated.
