By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
A Coroner’s Court inquest into the police-shooting death of Oswald Rolle has been adjourned to February 26.
Rolle was killed on February 12, 2015.
Coroner Jeanine Weech-Gomez announced the adjournment yesterday, reading a letter from a lawyer in the Office of the Attorney General who requested it.
Though four witnesses have already testified in the case, the family of Rolle have now hired Romona Farquharson-Seymour to represent their interests, replacing attorney Craig Butler. Mrs Farquharson-Seymour said she intends to call people who were on the scene of the shooting as witnesses.
The inquest comes as the government aims to ensure that such in-depth investigations, required by law, take place with greater predictability.
The Coroner’s Court is said to be inadequately resourced. The court has no stenographer, for example, therefore Coroner Weech-Gomez has to take her own notes.
In December, Attorney General Carl Bethel said the lack of inquests into police-involved killings and in-custody deaths over a number of years is “distressing” and “unacceptable” and his administration will deal with the matter aggressively.
At the time, he said he would meet officials of his office and Coroner Weech-Gomez to determine whether administrative or legislative fixes are necessary to address the problem.
He revealed last year there are about 28 police-related deaths that require an inquest, most of which are “just there,” languishing in the system.
Six men have been killed in police involved shootings so far this year, according to The Tribune’s records.
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