By CECILY ASSON Friday, July 30 2010

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I WANT JUSTICE: Hemawatee Mahadeo, mother of escaped convict Ricardon Mahadeo who was shot dead by police on Wednesday night, is demanding that Acting...

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ESCAPED convict Ricardo Mahadeo, 21, stopped by a bar on Wednesday night to drink a Mackeson stout, which he loved, because he did not know when next he would drink it. Not long afterwards, Mahadeo was dead, shot by police officers.

The police claim Mahadeo was armed with a cutlass and was shot when he attacked officers and tried to chop them. His angry relatives claim otherwise, saying he was at the bar waiting for his mother Hemawatee, to accompany him to the nearby Ste Madeleine Police Station to surrender to the police. They are demanding that Acting Commissioner of Police James Philbert investigate the shooting.

Mahadeo of Cipero Railway Line, Ste Madeleine escaped from the Golden Grove Prison in Arouca on July 12 where he was serving a sentence of six weeks simple imprisonment on a conviction of break-in and larceny. He was however in prison for the past year awaiting hearing of other charges which were pending.

Hemawatee said her son was drinking a Mackeson stout in the front of a bar in the village waiting for her to accompany him to the nearby Police Station to surrender. He had been on the run for the past 16 days.

Speaking outside the mortuary of the San Fernando General Hospital, Hemawatee charged: “The police shot my son in the back while he was running away from them! That cannot be right and Mr Philbert must investigate so the truth can come out.”

According to police, at about 7.30 pm, Mahadeo was with his brothers and other friends standing in front of the bar when he was confronted by armed officers. According to police, Mahadeo was armed with a cutlass and attempted to chop them when he was fatally shot.

His relatives including brother Simon Khan, 16, who said he survived a police shooting almost three years ago, demanded justice. “In September 2007, police tried to kill me. Now they killed my brother. It hurts because we were very close and he was going to give up himself,” Simon said. “Ricardo told me he was fed-up of running and that it wasn’t worth it because he was outside and still couldn’t be with his family. He wanted to enjoy a Mackeson stout because he didn’t know when next he would taste one again. Well, that was his last Mack,” Simon said.

Simon maintained that his brother was unarmed at the time. It was not known if an autopsy was carried out yesterday. Investigations are continuing.