The New Dawn Liberia | Truly Independent

An inmate identified as Mohammed Diallo was on Sunday morning found dead in the cell of the Airfield Police Station otherwise known as Salem. This paper has fathered that the deceased had been in prison since the 20th of April for owing one of his colleagues LD$430.

Mohammed is said to have met his untimely death when the Police Commander of Salem, Harry Bai allegedly pepper sprayed the cell, leaving three inmates fainting  and allegedly resulting to the death of Mohammed Diallo.

According to some former inmates, who had fallen victim of the spray, Mohammed may have died as a result of suffocation from the spray. It is also reported that the 8by8 cell was packed with more than 18 inmates.

According to some former inmates, prior to Mohammed’s death, inmates in the cell misbehaved on Saturday night by shaking the cell door despite call from the police for them to stop the disturbance, but to no avail.

One of the inmate, who was on the scene, said Police Commander Harry S. Bai entered the cell with baton and a pepper spray gun to calm the inmates saying, “The first time he entered the jail, he went with baton and beat people, but when he left the cell, we started disturbing again by hitting the cell door; he came back this time in the cell with a pepper spray and sprayed the entire cell like he was spraying his bedroom for mosquitoes,” he narrated while  showing his red eyes.

Residents of the Airfield community have expressed disgust about Bai’s constant act of police brutality against peaceful citizens. The death of Mohammed has opened old wounds among people in the community. A lady explained to the New Dawn in anger that the same pepper spray was allegedly used on her before by Commander Bai.

“He disgracefully did the same thing to me; he sprayed that same spray in my butt; I am not ashamed to tell you it my son; he sprayed in my butt when my friend brought me to the station for wearing short skirt,” she said.

“Spraying people is his habit, but God has left from behind him today by killing that poor Fula boy. He came on the plank field and did the same thing to one of our colleagues here so his spraying attitude is not strange,” a local plank dealer noted.

Meanwhile, Mohammed’s remains have been taken from the Salem depot by the Forensic Liberia National Police Mobile 1. Commander Harry Bai declined to speak to the media on the incident, but referred reporters to the National Police Headquarters on Capitol Hill.

Attempt by this paper to contact Police Spokesman George Bardu was unsuccessful as his mobile phone rang endlessly without answering on Sunday up to press time.