By PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Staff Reporter
pbailey@tribunemedia.net
ROMONA Farquharson-Seymour, a lawyer representing the estate of three men police killed at a mansion in Blair in 2019, asked an investigator during a Coroner’s Court inquest yesterday if “common sense goes out the window if officers are involved in a shooting investigation”.
Her comment came after the initial investigating officer, Detective Sergeant Desmond Rolle, admitted that the hands of one of the slain men were not swabbed for forensic analysis even though police allege that he had a gun in his hand and engaged them in a gunfight before they killed him.
Sgt Rolle, who was sometimes visibly frustrated with Mrs Farquharson Seymour’s questions, defended his investigation, saying “common sense was there”.
When the lawyer asked if he made inquiries based on the last messages from phones collected at the scene, he said he did not and reiterated that he was only the initial investigating officer. He said he turned the matter over to a superior.
He could not confirm if investigators collected weapons from officers involved in the incident but told jurors that 14 or 15 officers discharged their weapons, at least three of whom were from the Defence Force.
Tony Jamal “Foolish” Penn Smith, Valentino “T-Boy” Pratt and Trevor “Coopz” Cooper were killed on Commonwealth Avenue in the early morning of May 17, 2019, one of the deadliest single cases of a police-involved shooting.
Sgt Rolle said he visited the pink and white two-storey mansion on Commonwealth Avenue around 3am after the shooting.
He said he saw spent firearm casings near the front gate and others scattered across the yard up to the front door and garage.
He said he saw the dead bodies of three men, one in a Nissan Note in the garage, another in a room attached to the garage and the last in the doorway of an upstairs bedroom.
He said all three bodies were near a firearm, with the man in the room attached to the garage still holding a gun in his hand after his death. He said spent firearm casings were near the bodies, along with bullet holes in the walls and extensive gunshot damage to the car.
He said several men, women and children were safely escorted from the scene, and 22lb of drugs were seized from the premises.
He said several officers told him they responded to calls of gunfire in the area, and when they arrived at the residence, the slain men opened fire on them from the garage, resulting in a gun battle.
Another officer, Sgt Patrice Rolle, said none of the three dead men were licensed to own a firearm. She said there were no records of any of their names attached to the five guns recovered from the mansion.
Acting Coroner Kara Turnquest-Deveaux is presiding over the inquest. Angelo Whitfield is marshalling the evidence.
K Melvin Munroe represents the 15 officers. In addition to Mrs Farquharson-Seymour, Ryzard Humes and Ciji Smith-Curry represent the estates of the deceased men.
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