By PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Staff Reporter
pbailey@tribunemedia.net
THE word “headshot” was engraved on a police gun used in the fatal shooting of two men on Tonique Williams-Darling Highway in 2017.
This was revealed as the Coroners Court inquest into the matter continued yesterday.
Richard “Buddy” Bastian and Harold “Kevin” Brown were killed on Tonique Williams-Darling Highway around 1am on December 2, 2017. Bastian was pronounced dead at the scene. Brown later died in hospital.
Inspector Henrington Curry of the firearm section of the police forensic lab testified yesterday.
During cross-examination, David Cash, the attorney for the estates, questioned Inspector Curry as to why the word “headshot” was engraved on one of the police pistols, which Mr Cash called peculiar.
Inspector Curry said the manufacturer did not put the word there, and it was unusual for it to be on police firearms.
Inspector Curry said he received seven police firearms and magazines connected to the incident on February 13 and 14, including several 9mm Smith & Wesson and Sig Saur pistols and two revolvers –– a 38 special and a magnum.
He also said he received a 12 gauge Mossberg pump action shotgun, which, according to previous testimony, was registered to Harold Brown.
He said he also received five unfired shotgun shells, two of which he fired during testing. Two shotgun shells recovered from the incident were also submitted to his lab.
He said the weapons submitted to him could fire the rounds recovered at the scene.
A fired 38 Special and a fired 9mm bullet were part of the evidence he received.
Inspector Curry agreed with Mr Cash that bullet casings from the Magnum had to be manually ejected from the gun.
He also said while it takes two hands to operate the shotgun found in Brown’s vehicle, it wouldn’t be difficult to fire the weapon while driving.
He said one could fire the weapon while driving a stick shift vehicle and agreed that a muzzle flash would show if it is fired.
Security footage of the Pressure Point bar was shown in court. When Mr Cash highlighted an officer discharging his weapon while running toward the suspects, who were fleeing in their car, Inspector Curry said he saw something but couldn’t say if it was a muzzle flash. He said the flashes could have been from passing cars.
He also said that he could not see a muzzle flash from the vehicle of the slain men.
After viewing colour footage from a different vantage point, he said he possibly saw muzzle flashes from officers engaging the vehicle. However, he said he could not say this with certainty.
The attorney and the families of the deceased became audibly upset with his responses to the questions.
No civilians or officers reported shotgun injuries on the night of the shooting.
Dr Caryn Sands, the pathologist at PMH, testified about the autopsies she performed on the two men on December 6 and 7, 2017
Dr Sands said Bastian’s cause of death was gunshot wounds to his torso and extremities. She listed Brown’s cause of death as gunshot wounds to the head, right hand and both thighs.
She said she found six gunshot wounds on Bastian’s body and five gunshot wounds on Brown’s corpse. She said that two bullets were recovered from Bastian’s body.
She said the bullet wound to Brown’s head was the most rapidly fatal.
She said Brown had three injuries to his hand but that two of them on his left hand could have been from a single bullet.
She would not comment on the calibre of bullets that were fired at the deceased.
K Melvin Munroe represented the seven officers who are the subject of this inquest.
Angelo Whitfield marshalled the evidence.
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