Sev­er­al peo­ple blocked a sec­tion of Mid­dle Street out­side the George­town Pub­lic Hos­pi­tal (GPH) mor­tu­ary on Mon­day as three for­eign foren­sic pathol­o­gists were con­duct­ing an au­top­sy on 11-year-old Adri­an­na Young, whose body was found in a ho­tel pool at Tuschen, East Bank Es­se­qui­bo last Thurs­day.

The pro­tes­tors, beat­ing drums, chant­i­ng slo­gans and ring­ing a bell,  called for jus­tice for the child whose death has rocked the hearts of Guyanese across the di­vides of pol­i­tics, race, cul­ture and re­li­gion.

A CT scan had been con­duct­ed ear­li­er on Younge’s body be­fore it was trans­port­ed to the GPH mor­tu­ary for the au­top­sy ex­pect­ed to take over four hours to be com­plet­ed.

Two of the foren­sic pathol­o­gists- Dr Glenn A. Rud­ner and Dr Shub­hakar Kar­ra Paul-  have been brought in by the Guyana gov­ern­ment to con­duct the au­top­sy. They are be­ing joined by Trinidad and To­ba­go-born Chief Med­ical Ex­am­in­er of the US State of Delaware, Dr Gary L. Collins who was arranged by the girl’s fam­i­ly and lawyer, Dar­ren Wade.

In ad­di­tion to the three for­eign pathol­o­gists, the fam­i­ly has al­so re­quest­ed that Dr. Caleb Mc Clog­gan, an en­docri­nol­o­gist be present dur­ing the au­top­sy.

“At 12.30 (lo­cal time) they will start the process,” Dr. Mc Clog­gan, told re­porters “please have pa­tience” ap­peal­ing to the pro­tes­tors to ac­knowl­edge oth­er pa­tients be­ing cared for at the hos­pi­tal.

Mean­while, Op­po­si­tion leg­is­la­tor Aman­za Wal­ton-De­sir Mon­day called on the Na­tion­al As­sem­bly to ur­gent­ly de­bate a pe­ti­tion de­mand­ing an in­de­pen­dent in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the ac­tions tak­en by the Guyana Po­lice Force, fol­low­ing the death of  Younge.

Wal­ton-De­sir ques­tioned when the mo­tion, sub­mit­ted by the Guyana Hu­man Rights As­so­ci­a­tion and sup­port­ed by con­cerned cit­i­zens, would be ad­dressed. The pe­ti­tion urges Par­lia­ment to re­spond to pub­lic out­cry over what it de­scribes as per­sis­tent fail­ures by the po­lice to act law­ful­ly and just­ly.

How­ev­er, Speak­er of the House, Man­zoor Nadir, ex­plained that the pe­ti­tion could not be de­bat­ed due to its late sub­mis­sion hav­ing be­ing re­ceived on the same day the As­sem­bly con­vened. He reaf­firmed that all pe­ti­tions must first be re­viewed by the Clerk of the Na­tion­al As­sem­bly be­fore be­ing placed on the Or­der Pa­per.

The mo­tion calls for an in­de­pen­dent, in­ter­na­tion­al­ly led in­ves­ti­ga­tion, the tem­po­rary leave of the Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er, and a com­pre­hen­sive re­form of the force to re­store pub­lic trust and ac­count­abil­i­ty.

The Guyana Po­lice Force (GPF) has since re­vealed that then Re­gion Three Com­man­der, As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er Khalid Man­dall, has been trans­ferred and sent on ad­min­is­tra­tive leave, and three oth­er po­lice were placed un­der close ar­rest. The ho­tel own­er and staff had al­so been ques­tioned.

The ho­tel and a house be­long­ing to the hote­lier were burnt.

CMC/gt/ir/2025

GEORGE­TOWN, Guyana, Apr 28, CMC –