By PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Staff Reporter
pbailey@tribunemedia.net
THE coroner once again criticised the police as an inquest into the police-involved killing of three men in Blair Estates in 2019 resumed yesterday, calling it “unacceptable” that only eight of the 15 weapons officers used to kill the men were submitted as evidence.
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 the inquest.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Earl Thompson of the police forensic science section testified yesterday that of the eight police firearms his lab collected for testing, six were handguns, and two were rifles.
He said none of the weapons matched the ammunition recovered at the scene, indicating they weren’t fired there.
He said it took three to four hours for his lab to test the weapons.
When acting Coroner Kara Turnquest-Deveaux asked about the delay in retrieving the remaining seven weapons, three of which belong to the Defence officers, ACP Thompson said the guns are in active circulation throughout the country, mainly in Abaco.
The coroner criticised him for the delay, noting he had had since February 5 to collect the firearms. She said it was unacceptable that all the guns had not been tracked down. She said the police force and the country are not so large that it should be difficult to get the weapons.
She once again cited the pain of families waiting almost five years for the inquest only to be kept in limbo by delays.
She said challenges completing cases have nothing to do with how her court functions, adding that evidence gathering is an “internal issue” the police force needs to address.
Ryzard Humes, Ciji Smith-Curry and Romona Farquharson-Seymour, the attorneys for the estates, reserved questions for the witness until he completes his firearm report, which the coroner set for him to do by March 8.
K Melvin Munroe represented the officers.
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