The Tribune

By PAVEL BAILEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

pbailey@tribunemedia.net

POLICE morale is taking a hit from frequent homicide-by-manslaughter rulings in the Coroner’s Court, according to a lawyer who has represented officers in most inquests over the last year.

Once rare, jurors have returned two manslaughter findings this year. On Friday, they returned a justified homicide finding in the case of three men police killed in Blair Estates in 2019.

Yesterday, acting Director of Public Prosecutions Cordell Frazier said she has nearly finalised a decision on whether to charge officers who killed Deangelo Evans, 20, in 2018. A jury returned a manslaughter finding in that matter last August, one of several such findings last year.

“Each case has to be accessed and a determination made whether there is criminal liability,” Ms Frazier said yesterday. “Some of them result in criminal charges, some not. The standard is proof beyond a reasonable doubt for each offence. If we can’t make out a prima facie case in respect to the offence, we can’t charge.”

Last Thursday, jurors returned a manslaughter finding in the case of two officers who killed Roy Stubbs and Ernst Foreste near Cowpen Road on January 23, 2018.

The men killed in that incident were reportedly suspects in an armed robbery at a KFC on Oakes Field. Stubbs was being electronically monitored for a pending murder trial at the time of his death.

Attorney K Kelvin Munroe, who represented the officers in that case, expressed disbelief at the inquest finding.

“The finding of homicide by manslaughter in Thursday’s inquest could never be considered sound considering the circumstances and considering the evidence,” he said. “The evidence showed where the officers confronted armed suspects and not only that the suspects were armed, but shot at the officers causing and forcing these officers to engage.

“The evidence was clear.”

Mr Munroe also represented the officers in the Blair Estates matter that concluded on Friday.

He complained that the jury pool in inquests is “tainted”.

“The jury pool is tainted with recycled jurors, and that must be fixed,” he said. “It also appears as if the public don’t have sufficient confidence in the police, which also needs to fix. While an inquest does not determine liability, it still sends a black eye to the force and gives a negative outlook on the officers involved.”

“Policemen now are affected with these type of decisions.”

“Knowing that they followed their training, knowing that they are confronted with armed suspects and not only that the suspects are armed, they are being fired upon by these suspects and all they do is follow their training and engage these suspects, and then to come back to have an inquest for the jurors say that it is unjustified? The question then would be, what should an officer do? Stand up and be shot and killed? What would the verdict be then?”

“It just can’t be right. It has to make sense.”