In other news, 41-year-old Jervis Valencia has been hospitalized since April 24th when he was shot for the fourth time in eight years. And while the men accused of trying to kill him were remanded to prison, Valencia's recovery hasn't exactly been calm. He claims that police have been harassing him inside his hospital room. Video footage shows officers searching his hospital bed.
Today, the ComPol said he wouldn't classify it as harassment, but simply officers doing their duty, and that Valencia shouldn't take it personally.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I will not say that he has been harassed by the police or even bullied. One needs to understand, certainly there are some people who are trying to create mischief and I am not going to stoop to their level. The police received certain information and based on the information received, they went to the hospital and they met Jervis. They spoke to him and he cooperated with police to verify or deny the information. That was done and police left. I have seen the video footage and I do not see any sign of him being bullied. If the police get information right now that guns and drugs are at your home, they will go and search. It is the nature of police work and we must understand that. The LIU must not be seen as a shield for anybody to believe that they are not amenable to being searched by the police. It must not. I don't understand what people expect sometime, some people, but I repeat that in no way was Jervis Valencia bullied. We do appreciate and recognize the fact that Jervis is trying to make a change and we are committed to working with him in making that change. As a matter of fact, he needed 6 pints of blood and police officers are giving him the blood this morning. It shows that we are with him and the fact that police went to verify an information that they had received, should not be seen as him being targeted and he should not take it as that either. I don't think he is taking it that way. I will certainly go to the hospital today and visit him and see what are his concerns and let him know, because at the end of the day, we don't want people who are working with us to think that we are targeting them, but at the same time we must understand that if the police get certain information the police have a right to act on those information and that's simply what the police did."
