By PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Staff Reporter
pbailey@tribunemedia.net
THREE police officers failed to appear in court yesterday as an inquest opened into a deadly 2020 police-involved shooting, prompting Coroner Kara Turnquest Deveaux to issue arrest warrants against them.
Inspector Alcott Forbes, Corporal Kevin Greenslade Jr, and Police Constable Courtney Hall were absent as proceedings began into the shooting deaths of Deshoan “Spider” Smith, 25, Rashad Clarke, 28, and Jared Ford, 27, near Spikenard and Cowpen Roads on June 13, 2020.
The confrontation, which police said followed an attempted ambush near a funeral, left the men dead at the scene and sparked sharply conflicting accounts between police and the victims’ families.
A five-person jury has been impanelled to determine what happened that day. Police claimed officers on mobile patrol first encountered the men’s white Honda Accord parked at the eastern section of Spikenard Cemetery. When approached, the car reportedly fled, leading officers to a second confrontation along Cowpen Road, where they alleged the men fired first, prompting officers to return fire.
Authorities said a pistol was recovered from the car and noted the deceased was known to police. However, relatives rejected the official account, insisting the men never fired at officers and that the vehicle was riddled with bullets.
The case carries added attention because Corporal Greenslade, one of the officers absent yesterday, was previously linked to another controversial fatal police shooting: he and Constable Robert Young were found responsible for homicide by manslaughter during an inquest into the 2019 killing of 21-year-old Shanton Forbes in Yellow Elder Gardens.
Relatives of the three men killed in the Spikenard shooting, including Ford’s aunt and girlfriend, packed the courtroom as the case reopened under fresh scrutiny. Evidence in the inquest is expected to begin today, with Angelo Whitfield serving as evidence marshal.
An inquest does not determine criminal liability, but if the jury delivers an adverse finding, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions would review the case to determine if charges should be brought against the officers involved.
Earlier this month, another inquest jury returned a verdict of justifiable homicide in the police killing of Drexton Dominique Belony, 28, during a 2021 manhunt in Grand Bahama.
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