By PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Staff Reporter
pbailey@tribunemedia.net
THE family of Shanton Forbes breathed a collective sigh of relief and hugged each other Friday after a Coroner’s Court jury ruled that the 21-year-old’s police-involved killing in 2019 was a homicide by manslaughter.
This ruling comes weeks after the police-involved killing of Azario Major was also ruled a homicide by manslaughter. Findings against the police are rare.
In addition to homicide by manslaughter, jurors could have returned a result of justifiable homicide or homicide by murder.
On the night of March 25, 2018 PC 3731 Greenslade and PC 3725 Young proceeded to the backyard of a home in Brahm Drive in Yellow Elder Gardens where a party was being held. There officers shot Forbes multiple times in his chest. The 21-year-old died of his injuries later that day at the Princess Margaret Hospital.
The officers involved claimed that the deceased in this matter was armed at the time of this shooting. They recovered a black Glock .40mm pistol over the wall near where Forbes was shot. This same weapon was found alongside a .40mm magazine with six rounds in the chamber and blood on it.
The deceased’s family maintained that Forbes never had a gun that night. Witnesses of the shooting testified that they saw Forbes try to leave and that the only gunshots they heard came from the officers.
Dr Caryn Sands, a forensic pathologist at PMH, testified that the gunshot wounds to the victim’s body suggested that he was in motion at the time. She also listed his official cause of death as gunshot wounds to the torso.
Acting Coroner Kara Turnquest-Deveaux presided over the inquest. Calvin Seymour represented the family.
PC Greenslade and Young stood rooted to the spot after the five person jury read the verdict.
Following this ruling it is now up to the deceased’s estate whether to pursue any criminal charges against the officers.
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