Conflicting reports in alleged beating of police officer

The girlfriend of the man locked up for beating a police officer at the Immigration Department on Monday, said the version told by other eyewitnesses about what transpired is not true.
Janiel Williams said the  reason her baby’s father, Stanley Purcell, hit the officer, Corporal Colin “Sammy” Samuel, had nothing to do with the officer touching him or due to an argument over the department’s refusal to grant her an extension.
She said the department wanted to keep her in custody until arrangements were made for her to leave the country, and both she and Purcell were questioning the decision while Purcell tried to point out that she still had time in her passport, valid until June 4.
The woman said, “I have been hearing all these things as though Mr. Purcell just went up and started to hit the police officer, and it was not like that…Mr. Purcell then told them to look in the passport because I still have time in the passport, and the officer held him and was pushing him outside. Now, he has the baby. I have a baby six weeks old. That was when Mr. Purcell held the baby in his left arm and used his
right arm and pushed the officer and told him, ‘don’t push me. I’ll walk out.’ And the officer held him by his elbow, and he pushed him and he told him, ‘don’t hold me. I will walk’.”
The woman added that the officer “then fold his fist and hit my child. Nobody is saying that part. I had to take him to the hospital, [Monday] and, as we speak, I am at the doctor [yesterday] with him because they are getting a soft tissue in his side where he got the hit. That was when Mr. Purcell reacted to the police, when the baby got hit.”
That’s what she detailed when she called in to the Voice of the People yesterday, at approximately 12:25 p.m.
OBSERVER media subsequently contacted her to enquire whether the child sustained any bruises as a result of being hit, however, the mother said that the marks were no longer visible but that up to yesterday morning they could be seen.
She meanwhile said that contrary to reports from other eyewitnesses, the officer was not beaten for as long as 15 to 20 minutes, but that it was no more than five minutes, and she had tried to part the men at one point while another immigration officer was holding her baby.
After hearing William’s explanation on radio yesterday, staff at the immigration office, including the eyewitnesses, reached out to OBSERVER media and denied her claim that the officer struck the child.
The workers, who do not have the authority to speak with the media, said the entire incident got out of control when Purcell was asked to stop shouting and to leave the department.
They reported that the policeman attempted to lead him out by holding his elbow and Purcell pushed the officer, then handed the baby to its mother, and started beating the policeman.
Williams is maintaining her story while lawmen continue to investigate the matter, with charges likely to be filed against Purcell.
Meanwhile, the mother is suggesting that at least one immigration officer has made her a target and has accused her of coming to Antigua to have her baby and become employed while Antiguans are being left in the cold.
Williams said the excuse given for refusing to grant her an extension was that she has not been working while in Antigua and has not been contributing in taxes among other things.
She said, however, that the only reason she is without a job is because the extension stamp prohibits employment. The woman said that for the past two years, she has been in and out of Antigua because of immigration.
An extension stamp in a passport is not a permit to work. Anyone seeking employment must apply for a work permit.