By PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Staff Reporter
pbailey@tribunemedia.net
A POLICE officer testified yesterday that a .40 Springfield pistol allegedly recovered near Deangelo Evans’ body was not a police-issued weapon.
As the Coroner’s Court inquest into Evans’ police-involved killing on May 27, 2018 continued, the officers said Evans was not registered to have a weapon.
Superintendent Dexter Hanna said he had trained the two officers involved in the Sandy Lane shooting of Evans.
He told jurors officers are trained to protect themselves and the public if they view a suspect as a threat.
He said police training also requires an officer to engage a threat until it is stopped and to stop shooting if it is neutralised.
When K Melvern Munroe, the lawyer for the two officers, asked if police issue .40 Springfield pistols like the one allegedly recovered from the scene, SPT Hanna said no.
He expressed certainty that the gun was not part of the police armoury.
In response to a question from Ryzard Humes, a lawyer for the deceased’s estate, SPT Hanna agreed that if a gun was not brought to the police registry, it could not have been registered.
He said guns seized from people commonly enter police rotation, but the armoury is selective about who gets those weapons.
He said there are records of guns taken off the streets.
Under questioning from Romona Farquharson-Seymour, who also represents the deceased’s estate, SPT Hanna admitted that he did not anticipate giving testimony yesterday and said he had insufficient time to write a report on his findings. However, he disagreed that his investigation was rushed.
Sergeant Patrice Rolle of the Firearm Registry Office said she checked registration records on Monday and found Evans was never registered to own a firearm.
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