The controversy surrounding the deaths of two civilians and a member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) almost two weeks ago in Spanish Town, St Catherine has deepened following just-concluded post-mortem examinations.
Terrence Williams, head of the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), which is one of three entities probing the shooting, yesterday confirmed news reaching the Jamaica Observer that initial reports from the autopsies indicate that only one of the three died from gunshot wounds.
“I have not received the documentation, but that is what I have been told,” said Williams who last Thursday indicated that ballistic tests and post-mortem examinations would move INDECOM’s investigation forward this week.
At that time Williams said: “The post-mortems will be done next week. Ballistic analysis is going on right now, as well as reconstruction activity. From the scientific side we are moving ahead and we are asking people to come forward and give us information.”
But police sources yesterday claimed that the post-mortem examinations show that, while businessman Sheldon “Junior Biggs” Daley died from gunshot wounds he received when he was attacked by two men, alleged to be cops, the other victims — Kevron Burrell, and Corporal Rohan Williams — died from injuries they received when the vehicles they were travelling in collided.
“This opens a whole new dimension to the investigation as there were claims from persons on the scene, including one of the policemen allegedly involved in the shooting, that the civilian, Burrell, was shot in his car by a member of the JCF,” a senior police source told the Observer.
“It means that investigators will have to re-examine everything that they had initially assumed,” added the senior cop.
Initial reports were that Daley was at a party at Chedwin Park, on the outskirts of Spanish Town, St Catherine, when he was approached by two men who opened fire, killing him.
The men tried to escape in a waiting vehicle, driven by another cop, but were chased by an off-duty member of the JCF, who engaged them in a shoot-out on Old Harbour Road, Featherbed Lane, and Job Lane.
The vehicle carrying the three cops collided with another car at the intersection of Job Lane and Brunswick Avenue where the shoot-out ended.
It was later discovered that one of the cops was dead, a second was taken into custody, while the third — Corporal Kirk Frazer — escaped. He turned himself in after a dramatic television interview in which he claimed that his team was chasing the real killers of Daley when they were fired on.
In the TV interview, Frazer also alleged that the 32-year-old Burrell, who was driving the car which was involved in the collision with the vehicle that he was travelling in, had been shot by a policeman who came on the scene.
Frazer and his colleagues, who were assigned to the police Mobile Reserve, were travelling in an unmarked service vehicle, with JCF-issued firearms and blue flashing lights used by the police on official business although two of them had been taken off frontline duties and are facing murder charges.
The Inspectorate of Constabulary and the Criminal Investigation Bureau are also probing the shooting.
Police Commissioner Major General Antony Anderson and Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang are expected to provide an update on the state of the investigation during a media briefing today.
