By PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Staff Reporter
pbailey@tribunemedia.net
THE failure of a senior police forensics officer to disclose a toxicology report on three men police killed in Blair Estates in 2019 was deemed “unacceptable” by the coroner yesterday as the inquest into the matter continued.
Police killed Tony Jamal “Foolish” Penn Smith, Valentino “T-Boy” Pratt and Trevor “Coopz” Cooper on Commonwealth Avenue in the early morning of May 17, 2019. Fifteen officers, including three Defence Force marines, are the subject of this inquest.
Acting Coroner Kara Turnquest Deveaux admonished Assistant Commissioner of Police Earl Thompson of the police forensic science section after he told her he did not have the toxicology report. Coroner Deveaux said his department had almost a year to prepare for the inquest, which was delayed last March so authorities could gather more evidence.
She noted that in that time, 18 families, including those of the officers and the slain men, have languished waiting for the outcome of this inquest nearly five years after the three men were killed.
After calling his office, ACP Thompson said that the report would be ready when he continues his testimony later this week.
During his testimony, he read the firearm analysis report of Charles Bain, which was completed on September 27, 2019, and covered the five firearms recovered at the Blair mansion.
These include a Glock Smith & Wesson .40 pistol with ten rounds of ammunition, a Glock .45 pistol with one fired bullet and two unfired rounds, a Bersa 9mm pistol with nine unfired rounds, a Ruger 45 pistol with seven unfired rounds and an Amico Luger with three fired bullets in a container labelled Pratt.
He said these guns were tested and found capable of firing. He said some of the bullet casings recovered from the scene were fired from these weapons.
He said only three of the weapons analysed were fired during the incident. He also said three of the weapons had their serial number erased.
Ryszard Humes, one of the attorneys representing the estates, asked ACP Thompson if police carried guns with serial numbers erased, to which he said no.
ACP Thompson agreed with the attorney’s suggestion that the firearms he received could not have fired the 90-plus rounds of bullet casings pulled from the scene.
He also agreed that analysing the other guns fired at the scene would have been important.
Romona Farquharson Seymour, another attorney for the estates, showed the officer a picture of a 5.56 rifle found at the scene. He agreed that it was not fired from the weapons he received.
ACP Thompson agreed with Mrs Farquharson Seymour’s suggestion that it would have been helpful if the hands of the deceased were swabbed. Officers previously testified that the three dead bodies were all in the vicinity of a firearm.
When ACP Thompson was questioned about the placement of a gun above Pratt’s curled fingers, he said it was “within the realm of possibility” that the deceased held the gun like that before his death.
He agreed with Mrs Farquharson Seymour’s suggestion that it was possible for police firearms from the shooting to be sent to the lab for analysis to help the investigation.
Ciji Smith-Curry, the last attorney for the estates, said there were no records showing the deceased were tested for gunshot residue. She said that they couldn’t say definitively if any of the three slain men fired these guns.
ACP Thompson could not tell Mrs Smith-Curry if the officers’ guns were collected after the shooting. However, he said that it was the job of the forensic lab to be “fair and impartial” in investigations.
He disagreed with Mrs Smith-Curry’s suggestion that the report was “lacking” and disputed that it was incomplete based on the submitted evidence.
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