PHILIPSBURG: -- Detectives from the Landsrecherché arrested Officer Rishmer York early Sunday morning. York fired at least two shots on March 4th 2015 at 22 year old Akeem Isidora in Happy Estate Belvedere that claimed his life while he fired a third shot at the elder Isidora but missed his target.
The mother of Akeem Isidora and other persons in the community expressed outrage that the KPSM officer who used his service weapon to kill a neighbor of his girlfriend was a free man even though the prosecution named him a suspect less than one week after the brutal killing. However, the prosecution remained tightlipped on the investigation even though the the Landsrecherché advised them that they had enough evidence to arrest York for the brutal murder of Isidora but the Prosecution refused to accept the advice earlier. It was understood that the prosecution had sent the shells of the bullets they recovered at the scene and from Isidora's body for ballistic testing but to date they have not given out the results of the tests they received. SMN News learnt that a bullet was removed from York's vehicle that was also sent for testing but no one knows how the bullet got into York's vehicle since he fled the scene of the crime after shooting to death 22 year old Akeem Isidora.SMN News learnt that no spent shells found at the scene of the crime matched the bullet found in York's vehicle, but that information could not be confirmed by law enforcement.
York told his colleagues and investigators that he acted in self defense the night of the shooting but the mother of the slain victim and other neighbors said that York's excuse was an outright lie and that he was in the habit of harrassing Isidora who was a friend of his girlfriend. Shortly, after the shooting incident that claimed the life of Akeem Isidora, management of KPSM and Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson suspended Officer York with pay pending the outcome of the current investigation.
SMN News made several phone calls to press prosecutor Tineke Kamps, Prosecutor Karola Van Nie and Chief Prosecutor Ton Maan and Norman Serphos from the Attorney General's Office on Sunday for a confirmation on the arrest but none of them answered their telephone. SMN News also dispatched emails to the persons in charge of releasing information to the media but up to the time this article was published SMN News got no response. As soon as SMN News gets a response from the Prosecutor's Office this article will be updated.
SMN News managed to reach Press Prosecutor Tineke Kamps by telephone shortly after this article was published and Kamps confirmed that Officer York was arrested on Sunday morning and has been charged with manslaughter, she also confirmed that the prosecution did get back the results on the ballistic testing on the spent shells that was sent to the Netherlands but said she could not divulge any information on the results at this time.
