The body of Antoine Houston, one of the three men fatally shot by the police last Thursday, was found to be riddled with seven bullets when a post mortem examination was performed on his body, his relatives said.

Relatives of the 29-year-old man said that they witnessed the post mortem yesterday and were shown the bullet wounds.

It was suspected that the young man was killed by a single bullet that entered the right side of his temple and exited at the left.

He also had bullet wounds on his back, hand and stomach and from all indications he received the fatal wound while lying on his side.

The aunt of the man, who said she witnessed the post mortem, said that the doctor explained to her the possible position her nephew was in at the time he was shot. She said it appeared that he was on his side and was attempting to shield himself with his right hand. Flesh wounds on that hand bear out this scenario, the aunt said. But it was the shot in his temple that would have caused him to die.

Stabroek News was not able to confirm whether post mortem examinations were performed on the bodies on the other two men, Steve Grant and John Bruce.

The police had claimed that they were forced to shoot the three men after they were fired upon by them. The police said in a press release that the men were in a car and had jumped out and opened fire on the members of Target Special Squad, during which time the car fled the scene.

However, in contrast, eyewitnesses said that the three men were shot in cold blood; one when he was backed up against a stall and the other two as they were lying face down on the ground.

The mother of Houston, Claudette Schultz, had told this newspaper that she had awakened her son at 5:30 am and sent him to purchase fish at Industrial Site. She claimed that her son told her he would have gone with another man, who lived not far from them, and who purchased fish for his wife's fish shop in the mornings. The man, the owner of a private car, has not been seen since the incident, nor has his car.

The woman said that after her son did not return home she had approached the man's wife, but she had said that she was not sure if Antoine had travelled with her husband, as she did not see when they left.

Schultz is claiming that when she visited the Brickdam Police Station in her quest to see her son's body on Friday, she saw the man's car parked in the compound.

When Stabroek News contacted the Public Relations Office of the Guyana Police Force, Inspector Smith, who is the officer in charge, said he was not aware that any car involved in Thursday's incident was parked in the Brickdam Police Station. He told this newspaper that when the driver and the car were found, this newspaper would be informed.

Schultz said that she has since learnt that the owner of the car, whose name she gave, was being kept by the police for safety. She also claimed that fish was found in the trunk of the car.

Schultz yesterday maintained that her son was not a criminal and once again challenged the police to produce evidence that her son was ever connected to any criminal activities in Guyana or in Trinidad as the law enforcement officers have alleged.

She told this newspaper that while her son was never employed with the PNC REFORM (PNC/R) during the last election, he volunteered his services to the party. The woman said that she had revealed this information to the police in a signed statement she gave to them.

She also said that the shirt on her son's body yesterday was not the same one he had left the house with on the day of his death.

A official statement from the family of the dead man said that Antoine was executed on suspicion of seeking to perpetuate a crime. It continued that whether that was the intention of the men that morning they should not have been judged, sentenced and executed mafia-style by members of the Target Special Squad.