An investigation followed up by this paper has unearthed that Police Deputy Inspector General for Operations-designate, J. Nelson Freeman, was not responsible for the death of any Cdcian in 2011.
Recently, Atty. Freeman was appointed by President Joseph Boakai as Deputy Inspector General for Operations replacing Marvin Sackor at the Liberia National Police.
But since his nomination, some members of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) are accusing him of instigating violence at their party’s headquarters during a violent protest in Monrovia.
On November 7, 2011, thousands of partisans and sympathizers of the CDC assembled at their party headquarters and other locations, in response to a call from the party intended to support a planned boycott of the November 8, 2011 Presidential run-off between the Unity Party (UP) and their party.
Accordingly, the CDC partisans and sympathizers left their headquarters and occupied intersections at major streets thereby setting up roadblocks with fee stumps, burning tires and setting up other barricades to prevent the free flow of traffic within Monrovia.
Efforts through negotiation to persuade the crowd of demonstrators to return to the headquarters of the CDC failed and as some of the protesters attempted to by-pass the barricade the Police set up, the Police Support Unit (PSU) began using tear gas to disperse the crowd.
The protest later turned chaotic before the situation could be brought under control, leaving one person killed and several others wounded, including six police officers and eight protesters, while over 65 protesters were arrested.
As a result and in response to the incident days after the shooting, former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf set-up a Special Independent Commission of Inquiry (SICI) to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident.
But the investigative commission report however exonerated Officer Freeman from any murder charges, saying “Officer J. Nelson Freeman did not shoot any civilian while discharging his firearm.”
The report said, “The investigation established that Deputy Commissioner J. Nelson Freeman on November 7, 2011, did enter the CDC Compound during the rioting and had altercation with UNMIL officers, who tried to disarm him.”
According to the Investigative Commission Report, DCP Freeman discharged his service weapon in an attempt to resist disarmament by the UNMIL officers.
The report noted, “When questioned further as to why he discharged his weapon, DCP Freeman indicated that he was constrained because he was afraid that his disarmament would expose him to greater danger while in the compound of the CDC headquarters.”
“The Panel therefore concludes that officer Freeman’s discharge of his firearm was in violation of LNP Firearm Policy, but said action cannot be construed as criminal in that his weapon was not targeted at civilians or UNMIL personnel but was directed to the ground, and no one got injured as a result,” the report added.
Meanwhile, the panel recommended among many things that administrative punitive measures be taken against an officer, instead of criminal prosecutions.
The panel further called for the training of senior officers of the LNP on how to respond to similar incidents in the future as well as continuous training of ERU and PSU officers on riot and crowd control, and the use of deadly force.
“Police should employ photographers and videographers to cover such events and that government should provide non-lethal equipment for the Police to use in crowd and riot control” the report recommended.
The investigation also proposed that the LNP should review its policy on Policing Demonstrations and Violent Assembly which particular attention on command and coordination structure for personnel who will be involved in managing these events,” the panel recommend.
