Avondale Trumbach, known as Hogbone was the victim of a street execution two weeks ago. His funeral was held in his home village of Gales Point on Good Friday, April 22nd.
As we've reported Trumbach was considered an O.G. of the George Street Gang and so police were on high alert when funeral goers were returning from Glaes Point on Friday afternoon.
But maybe the alert was too high: the three chartered busses which had gone to Gales point form Thursday - were stopped and searched not once but twice!
That left funeral goers irate and demonstrative. We found them at the second check point at mile 17 where frustration was in every breath - particularly from one man - who asked us to mask his identity. He said - and witnesses confirmed - that at the first checkpoint he was assaulted by a police officer just for using his cell phone:
Albert Cacho, Assaulted by Police
"As we pull up to the checkpoint the bus stop and they tell everybody to come off the bus. So as the people were walking off and I
was walking with my phone in my hands - the officer shouted to me throught the window to put up my phone or else he will break it in half. I still had my phone in my hands and as I reach at the door the officer just pull me out."
Yaya Marin, Funeral Goer
"I see they push a "chocolate brother" in his back. I didn't see him do anything for the officer to push him like that. That is what I see. I see the "brother" standing against the wall and I saw the officer just kick the "brother" in his back."
Albert Cacho, Assaulted by Police
"I don't remember the exact word that he told me but basically its a curse word that he say to me."
Jules Vasquez
"Did he told you not to use the phone for photo or video purposes?"
Albert Cacho, Assaulted by Police
"Yes sir but I wasn't even doing that."
Jules Vasquez
"So but what? You say that you were assaulted?"
Albert Cacho, Assaulted by Police
"Yes sir. I didn't even step out of the bus yet when the officer pulls me out and he stomp me in my back. He sees that I have the phone in my hand and he grab the phone from my hand and he slap me in my face with it."
Jules Vasquez
"You have any history with the officer?"
Albert Cacho, Assaulted by Police
"Of course not."
Jules Vasquez
"Are you a gang member?"
Albert Cacho, Assaulted by Police
"Definitely not. I don't know if it's because of the shirt or not. I am not a gang member or anything like that. I work six days a week; 9-6 o' clock; work to home every day."
Ann Bradley, Funeral Goer
"Since when do police have the right and authority to come and break a phone like it is drugs or gun. Our phone is our tool, they have no right to touch that."
Yaya Marin, Funeral Goer
"So I stick my head out the window when I see an officer by my bus. I ask the officer for his name, he replied to me that nobody has no name out here and he says that the Commissioner of Police has ordered this, so then he came on the bus and I had my phone out and he said to me to turn off my phone and that he will break up the phones and he says that we left anything on this bus he will burn it up. He say that no media cant help us out here. The females and the males were against the wall. That is when I call KREM Radio."
Jules Vasquez
"You went against the wall Yaya?"
Yaya Marin, Funeral Goer
"Yes I went against the wall. I humbled myself. You haven't searched me yet officer. I want you to search me on camera." (Search by police officer)
"Yes I was against the wall on my phone and my sister show me another officer who was recording on his cell phone, so my sister is saying why is he recording on his cell phone and then we cant use our cell phone."
Traveller
"I have proof to show that the police do this at me (bang bang) when he sees me. I do have any reason and I am not scared."
Yaya Marin, Funeral Goer
"But My concern here is, let say I didn't know these "brother", I could lie like everybody else, but as a journalist if I don't have any credibility, I don't have a future anywhere and so when I see you I say seal, Jules is here with a camera seal."
Ann Bradley, Funeral Goer
"This is a funeral and I think that the police have no respect at all to come and dramatize the people on this bus. They already check the bus at La Democracia, now what is the point for us to reach all the way here again to check us again. What did we had then that we don't have now or what do we have now that we didn't have then? if they already check. The reason why we are mad is because our children are with us and we are tired, we were at Manatee from night until dawn. To every time they mess with someone innocent its just cause more for other people to get mad and want to do something."
Jules Vasquez
"But on the real, look at it from the police perspective. You think there is any justification being as there is a gang dimension with this entire "Hogbone" thing. You think there is any justification?"
Ann Bradley, Funeral Goer
"I don't know about that. All we know is that we are innocent and this is not right for us to be going through this procedure."
Traveller
"I feel very disturb because we already went through a long time with my cousin death. I don't think we need to go through this again."
Jules Vasquez
"How do you feel about this situation?"
Traveller
"This is ridiculous, they expect the youths to humble themselves and this is the way that they treat people."
The checkpoint we encountered was staged by the Gang Suppression Unit - whose personnel seem not to have known that there had been a previous checkpoint at the La Democracia cutoff. The abuses detailed in the interview were from the first checkpoint - which the funeral goers told us was run by another police unit with an officer Gamboa in charge.
We noted no abuses on the GSU checkpoint, but by that time, it hardly mattered, the weary funeral goers were already at their wit's end. Officer in charge of the GSU Superintendent Marco Vidal says their checkpoint was not a random search and that they were looking for "specific targets based on intelligence."
The GSU did make one small bust at that checkpoint: A search of one of the females turned up 12 grams of cannabis concealed inside her brassiere and she was charged for possession of a controlled drug.
Police say 23 year old Shermaine Reneau - who is Brian Brown's Common Law wife - was found with the cannabis. She was charged with "Possession of Controlled Drugs".
