Senator Bruce questioned over alleged wounding incident

At about 10:00 a.m., on Wednesday October 13, 2021, Opposition senator Israel Bruce, walked into the Criminal Investigations Department (C.I.D) accompanied by his lawyer Kay Bacchus-Baptiste, to be interviewed by the police in relation to allegations of the wounding of Cecil Sutton on the evening of Sunday July 14, 2019 in Chinatown.

The Police investigation into the incident that resulted in a laceration to the forehead and swelling to the face of Sutton, has, according to them, never been closed.

However,Bacchus-Baptiste said that, “They brought up an older allegation made by Cecil Sutton over two years ago, which, as far as we know, was already investigated.”

“All of a sudden, two years after, they have brought it up again and say that they are continuing investigations, so they asked him for a statement and he gave a statement which is, that the allegations are false and not credible and baseless,” the lawyer added.

According to the police, “Mr. Bruce was previously asked to provide a report in relation to the matter, but refused.”

Another request was made and this time he complied, turning up to the C.I.D. with his lawyer to be questioned.

The police indicated that based upon certain recommendations made by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), “The investigating officer has a few loose ends to tie up before a determination could be made whether Bruce will be formally arrested and charged.”

After a long delay, Sutton had communicated about the alleged incident to Commissioner of Police Colin John by letter dated June 29, 2021, and this was confirmed by the office of the Commissioner.

Recalling the events of Wednesday morning, Bacchus-Baptiste said that when her client went to the CID at the Central Police Station to give the statement, he was arrested by word, and after the statement was taken, was told he was released and that he was free to go, pending further investigations.

She estimates that the total time spent at the CID was less than an hour.

 Bruce has been a Senator for the New Democratic Party (NDP), since early 2019. He also ran as the NDP’s candidate for South Central Windward in the 2020 general elections, alongside Bacchus-Baptiste, who vied for representation of the East St George constituency.
“…Somebody wants to tarnish Israel Bruce’s good name…” Bacchus-Baptiste claimed, “…and we’re not gonna stand for it.”

“We not going to stand for it at all, this country’s going through too much now to have the police wasting their time on an allegation that was investigated over two years ago, discarded, and now they’re coming back without sufficient evidence,” she declared.