BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - Following a spate of shooting incidents involving members of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force in recent times, the lack of information coming out of those investigations have raised concerns in some quarters.
However, Police Commissioner Hilroy Brandy is reassuring that the investigations have been completed and the files are with the Director of Public Prosecutions, where a decision would be made about a Coroner’s Inquest.
A Coroner's Inquest in the Caribbean’s perspective is carried out when a police officer is involved in a shooting incident that resulted in the injury or death of one or more individuals.
Two high profile incidents regarding police involvement in shooting incidents have gone quiet, and it was revealed that the files are reportedly with the DPP.
SKNVibes had asked Commissioner Brandy about the Coroner’s Inquest into the most recent police shooting incident, which occurred in the Sandy Point area on January 30.
In that incident, police stated that sometime after 4:00 p.m. they received a report from a male that his neighbour had beaten his seven-year-old son and he requested assistance.
When police arrived at the scene, the assailant was behaving in a violent manner, was using threatening language and “he refused to cooperate with their instructions”.
Police said, “He advanced towards the officers with a knife, swung the knife at them and threatened to kill one of them. He was warned and refused to comply with the commands of the officers. As a result, he was shot in the legs.”
The other incident that raised eyebrows is the killing of wanted man Vincent Taylor, who was gunned down in a reported shooting exchange with the police back in 2017 in the Sandy Point area.
Taylor was wanted for an armed robbery committed back in December 2017 and was described by the police as being a person of interest in the shooting death of Sergeant Leon Powell.
According to the police, while officers of the security forces were conducting a joint search operation for Taylor in the area of Bouncing Hill, Sandy Point, he “opened fire on the officers injuring one of them. They returned fire and Taylor was shot and killed as a result”.
An autopsy performed by Dr. Valery Alexandrov revealed that the man had sustained several non-life-threatening injuries, but a single gunshot to the head was the cause of death.
The Commissioner, in explaining the process of a Coroner’s Inquest, reminded that it is the court that decides when it is to be heard.
He informed when that is done, the police would work along with the court to support “än jury and to have a Coroner’s Inquest”.
Speaking to the two incidents, Commissioner Brandy said that both of them would require a Coroner’s Inquest.
“The police submitted the file to the Director of Public Prosecutions and will take it from there,” he declared.
