CHARLESTOWN, Nevis – THE off-duty police officer who shot and killed Philo Wallace does not have to stand trial, as the jury in the Coroner’s Inquest returned a verdict that justified his action in the teenager’s death.
Information reaching SKNVibes yesterday (Mar. 10), which was confirmed by Deputy Commissioner of Police Hilroy Brandy and later by a police communiqué, stated that the five-member jury had returned a four-one verdict that the killing of Wallace was justifiable homicide.
The inquest, which began on Thursday, January 21, 2016, was heard by Her Worship Jasmine Clarke at the District ‘C’ Magistrate Court in Charlestown, Nevis on Thursdays and Fridays, and yesterday she gave her summation upon which the jury deliberated.
The police communiqué stated: “The Coroner’s Inquest into the use of a firearm by an off-duty Police Officer that resulted in the death of a juvenile was completed on Thursday, March 10, 2016. The panel of jurors returned a decision of ‘Justifiable Homicide’.”
It also stated that the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force respects the decision of the proceedings.
In an effort to garner more information on the outcome of the inquest, SKNVibes made numerous attempts to contact Wallace’s father and Dr. Henry Browne, who was legal counsel to the Wallace family, but they were all futile.
According to reports, at approximately 3:45 a.m. on Saturday, October 17, 2015, there was an altercation at Enrique’s Bar in Cedar Trees, Charlestown, Nevis, which resulted in Wallace being shot and a police officer had suffered an injury to his head.
Wallace was rushed to the Alexandra Hospital where he was pronounced dead half an hour later, while the wounded officer, who was off-duty at the time, was said to have used his service firearm that killed the teenager.
Following the incident, the Police High Command held a press conference on Monday (Oct. 19, 2015) and had informed the media that investigations would be conducted by the Violent Crimes Unit and the Office of Professional Standards.
That decision did not sit well with many people, who voiced that the police should not investigate their own, but the High Command had promised that the police’s investigations in the matter would be thorough and transparent.
The officer was sent on sick leave and it was rumoured at that time that he had returned to his place of work. But then Acting Commissioner of Police Stafford Liburd had cleared the air on the rumour.
“The Constable who is involved in the shooting-death of Philo Wallace is not on active duty. He is presently on administrative leave, but he is very much restricted while on that leave. The restriction on that leave does not permit him to be around in certain areas of the Police Force,” Liburd said.
An investigation conducted by this media house in collaboration with a social group called Save St. Kitts and Nevis had led to a number of individuals, some of whom claimed to have been present when Wallace was shot at Enrique’s Bar, while a few of them swore to have seen him earlier at the Lime Beach Bar on Pinney’s Beach.
“She is the same girl that he was dancing with at Enrique Bar, but I can’t say if they had left the Beach Bar together to go there. What I am certain of is that she is the same person Philo was dancing with at Pinney’s Beach,” one individual said.
A young man, who said he knew Wallace but not as a friend, claimed to have witnessed what happened at Enrique Bar.
“I was in the same bar dancing when Philo was shot. Many young people were there dancing and Philo was one of them. I was about 10 to 12 feet away from him while he was dancing with a girl. Suddenly a fight broke out between a man and a girl from Barnaby side, but that matter was quickly resolved.”
He continued: “Shortly after that I saw the girl who Philo was dancing with pushed him aside. I later learnt that she did that because she had seen the officer from a distance coming into the bar. I saw when the officer came in and he went straight to Philo and pushed him, and Philo pushed him back. It was no gang fight as some people have been saying; it was a pushing contest between Philo and the officer who did not identify himself as a member of the Police Force.
“The next thing I heard was bam. It sounded like a gunshot and I thought maybe the bullet didn’t catch anybody. But the next thing I saw was somebody staggering. It was Philo! He was shot straight to his chest and he fell on the ground by the doorway with the upper part of his body outside and his feet inside the bar.”
The young man explained that after realising someone was shot, pandemonium was the order of the day as many patrons ran in the bathroom while others headed towards the doorway and some of them stepped on the injured teen.
He too had exited the bar.
Another young man, who also claimed to have witnessed the shooting incident, said he overheard someone who was dancing with a girl near to Wallace rebuking the officer.
“Me hear when a guy who did dancing a few feet from Philo telling de officer that he wrong for shooting the youth. Me hear de youth ask he, ‘You kill a man for a woman boy?’ And the girl who this thing started over say, ‘You don’t know what he do.’
“All this time the officer had he gun in the air like if to say nobody coulda do he nothing. The youth was still arguing with the officer when somebody throw a bottle from inside the bar and it hit the officer on he head. Some people does only talk, they wasn’t there to know who throw the bottle, yet them claiming Philo and the officer had a fight and is Philo hit he with the bottle. A next thing is that the bottle bust he head and it happen outside the bar and not inside as some people believe. It wasn’t no fight...is push the officer push Philo and Philo push he back and he tek out he gun and shoot the man.”
A third individual confirmed what were said and explained that shortly after the shooting incident, “somebody pick up Philo and took him to the hospital. A police car then came up and an officer approached the other officer who shot Philo and took the gun from him. It seemed as if he had regretted what he did because he was visibly shaking from head to toe”.
The individual also said that after relieving the officer of the firearm, other officers placed him in the car along with the girl and drove towards the Charlestown Police Station.
Despite the many pleas for these young men to go forward and give the same information to the officers who are investigating the matter, they remained resolute in their stance, stating that “this will have some serious repercussions...we don’t want to be targets of death”.
They however claimed that the police investigators could get the facts from one of the employees at Enrique Bar, while pointing out that “they will get the same story that we told you”.
It is not known if they had a change of heart and their accounts of what allegedly transpired were among the evidence presented at the Coroner’s Inquest.
However, speaking to an individual on condition of anonymity, SKNVibes was this morning told: “Our fears have been realised! It is the police who investigated the matter and it is the police who selected the jurors. So what do you expect to come out of a case like that?”
Reports reaching SKNVibes stated that the officer was residing at the Charlestown Police Station since he was sent on leave. And immediately after yesterday’s verdict, it is alleged that his lawyer had visited the station to inform him that no criminal charges would be preferred against him in Wallace’s shooting-death.
