Monday, December 30, 2024
By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS
AND PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Staff Reporters
A CANADIAN said his visit to The Bahamas with his girlfriend turned into a nightmare when police allegedly abused him –– beating him with a bat while he was handcuffed.
Tanner Cartwright, 23, and his girlfriend Amelia Niederhauser, 27, visited Mr Cartwright’s family early this month.
Mr Cartwright claims officers subjected him to a brutal assault while in police custody. He claimed an inspector took him to a private room, ordered other officers to leave, and viciously beat him with a bat while he was handcuffed.
He said the inspector placed a phonebook on his body to minimise visible bruising, all the while hurling profanities and insults.
“He ripped me from my chair where I was sitting and proceeded to beat me with a bat,” he told The Tribune, adding that the officer threw him down a staircase.
“The officer who threw me down the stairs said he would just tell others I tried to run if questioned,” he added.
Mr Cartwright shared a medical form indicating he suffered blunt force head trauma, dislocated ribs, a damaged spine causing severe pain and spasms, bruises on his face and body, and injuries to his hands. He shared photos; one showed a swollen hand, while another showed injuries to his buttocks.
“I was screaming in pain, so there is no way anyone in the station did not hear me,” he said, noting that an officer later joked, saying it was just some “cut ass from the boss”.
The ordeal allegedly began on Wednesday, December 4, after the couple intervened in a domestic dispute in Bahama Palm Shores,
Abaco, and called the police to the scene. Mr Cartwright said after voluntarily accompanying officers to the station to provide a statement, they were arrested on allegations of marijuana possession.
“The marijuana was found in a completely separate residence on the property where the domestic dispute occurred,” he said. “I have provided statements and documentation, even taking a drug test after my release to prove I do not use marijuana.”
Denied access to a phone, Mr Cartwright contacted his uncle the following afternoon using an officer’s personal cellphone. Their family secured legal representation on Friday, the day they were finally brought to court.
“We were told the only way out was for me to plead guilty to the marijuana charge and for both of us to plead guilty to assault. All charges were dismissed, and we were released immediately after,” Mr Cartwright said.
“Not all police mistreated us,” he said, adding that one officer helped.
Mr Cartwright called for stricter guidelines within the Royal Bahamas Police Force, emphasising the need for proper education, training, and mental health evaluations for officers. He highlighted the perceived culture of impunity among some.
Inspector Desiree Ferguson, a press liaison officer, confirmed to The Tribune that an investigation is underway into the alleged abuse.
She also confirmed that Mr Cartwright and his girlfriend had been charged with possession of dangerous drugs and granted a conditional discharge after pleading guilty.
“With The Bahamas on the world stage for corruption right now in our force and the ongoing accusations of this, I hope the investigation is not taken lightly and these issues will start to be dealt with,” Mr Cartwright said. “I love the country I am from but I am embarrassed by this corruption,” he said.
“I have talked to other people who have had this happen recently as well, and they are fighting their cases in court. This is a deep-rooted issue in our police force.”
Comments
hrysippus says...
So who do we believe; one one side is doctor's report, the drug test result, the testimony of the Canadian visitor, and on the other side, there is......well, nothing actually. Perhaps a report of an internal police investigation may be ready in two or three years.
Posted 30 December 2024, 10:30 a.m. Suggest removal
ExposedU2C says...
This article is poorly written and confusing as regards the nature of the domestic dispute and the circumstances surrounding the marijuana possession and assault charges. Way too many questions are therefore left open that properly trained and experienced newspaper reporters would ordinarily seek answers to in covering this type of story. The Tribune is no longer a place where a young person interested in a career in journalism should work in the hope of receiving a few years of beneficial training for a slave wage.
Posted 30 December 2024, 2:59 p.m. Suggest removal
TalRussell says...
**Yeah so this would not be the first time** ever an individual claimed was severely hit physically about whilst in policemans' custody. -- What's missing are **protests in the form of calypso and goombays' songs of brutalities'.** -- Yes?
Posted 30 December 2024, 3:28 p.m. Suggest removal
ThisIsOurs says...
I recall the young man who suffered a medical incident at a jail cell. The symptoms were so severe, likely heart attack or some other anxiety attack that affected his breathing, they had to make an emergency call to an ambulance to have him carted away to the hospital. He was also covered in bruises head to toe that his lawyer had apparently not seen on him before.
The officer in charge of the station said he had no idea what happened.
That aside always wondered why we had multiple cases of prisoners hanging themselves with shoestrings. No investigation.
There needs to be a special court to ferret out these senior police deaf, blind and dumb disabilities.
Posted 30 December 2024, 11:46 p.m. Suggest removal
mandela says...
The Bahamas police force, corrupt and nasty attitudes, stinks and can't be trusted to act like normal humane beings.
Posted 30 December 2024, 10:41 p.m. Suggest removal
ThisIsOurs says...
I heard the incoming commissioner express sentiments of "*excitement*" in regard to taking over the new position along with an expression of the great step forward this was for women.
I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt that the news footage cut short the full response.
Because, at a time when 4 officers are charged with rape, 2 are charged with manslaughter in course of their duties. The head of CDU is being investigated for corrupting criminal cases for thousands of dollars in payment with all known witnesses to the conspiracy murdered, one alledgedly by "*men in police boots who left the scene in a govt vehicle*". An ASP and Chief Petty Officer are currently indicted in the US for conspiring, at minimum, with a Columbian Cartel to use police planes to transport millions in cocaine through the Bahamas, the ex police staff association president, Sonny Miller, is on charges of cocaine trafficking after being caught by the US coast guard offloading drugs from a plane, a high ranking politician named and implicated by ASP Curtis in negotiations for a bribe to facilitate cocaine trafficking, still holds all *high places* power and authority and is free to conduct *business as usual* with god only knows what other "*businessmen*"....
With all of this on the plate of the police force, you would think an incoming commissioner would feel the gravity and weight of the task immediately and "*excitement*" and "*a step for women*" would be the last of a long list of things to be mentioned...
But hey, we've still not charged Nygard or Sam for cases with mountains of evidence we dont have to lift a finger to find.
Posted 31 December 2024, 12:12 a.m. Suggest removal
ExposedU2C says...
A spot on observation.
Our new police commissioner is the wrong woman at the wrong time, especially given that we have so many senior ranking men in the RBPF who are themselves corrupt and brutal criminals with very little or no respect for women in our society. It seems all Davis cared about in appointing her is that she is a women. Davis could not care less that hardened criminals are now within the senior ranks of the RBPF and that our nation is awash with violent criminals waiting to pounce on their next victim who could easily be any one of us.
Posted 31 December 2024, 2:40 p.m. Suggest removal
birdiestrachan says...
Do the police have bats in the police station. Do they have them stored there ?? To beat people with that would be my question
Posted 31 December 2024, 8:12 p.m. Suggest removal
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