Eighty-two residents from the community of Salisbury through their lawyer Cara Shillingford have filed a civil lawsuit against the government of Dominica.
In court documents filed and obtained by Nature Isle News (NIN) the residents are claiming assault and battery, aggravated trespass, negligence, and constitutional rights for an incident that occurred on the 5th December 2019.
On that date, members of the Regional Security System (RSS) who were brought into Dominica to help assist in maintaining law and order over escalated protest action together with local police entered the village and proceeded to fire tear gas canisters directly in the yards and home of persons living in the village.
The list of the Claimants includes both young and elderly persons with their age ranging from three years old to ninety-four. Many of the Claimants were senior citizens who lived alone and were asleep when the attack on the village stared at around 3:30 AM.
According to the particulars, the said State employees/agents entered onto lands owned/possessed by the claimants without permission or lawful authority and sent canisters of tear gas into and near the homes of the claimants causing them to “inhale tear gas which is a poisonous and noxious substance.”
The Claimants all reside on a hill which is between 40 and 2000 feet away from the Edward Oliver Leblanc highway.
The Claimants said the RSS forces and police officers who were present in Salisbury on the 5th day of December 2019 “owed a duty to take reasonable care so as to not cause harm or injury to the claimants and other residents of Salisbury.”
The RSS forces and police officers owed a duty not to send/shoot expired tear gas canisters into or near the homes of the claimants and as such acted “negligently and in breach of their duty of care when they, without justification or legal authority, threw/shot tear gas canisters into properties and homes belonging to or occupied by the claimants.”
The claimants, states that the action of the RSS and local police caused injury to several elderly persons and young children, who posed no threat to the State and were inside of their homes when forced to inhale tear gas emitted from canisters thrown/shot by the Defendant’s agents/employees.
They also state that at the time of the incident, there was no roadblock or violence in the area of Salisbury where the Claimants reside.
The tear gas emitted from the canisters sent by the said State employees and/agents caused the claimants to suffer personal injuries including pain to the eyes, nose, chest, and throat and as a result, the claimants claim:
A declaration that the defendant has breached the claimant’s constitutional rights under sections 5 and 7 of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Dominica; Damages inclusive of exemplary and aggravated damages; costs; interest; any and such other and further relief as this Honorable Court considers just.