By PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Staff Reporter
pbailey@tribunemedia.net
A POLICE firearm examiner testified yesterday that a bullet recovered from the dashboard of the vehicle in which three men were shot and killed by police on Cowpen Road in 2020 was one of two rounds fired from a gun found near the deceased.
Constable Antoinette Fox gave evidence during the inquest into the deaths of Deshoan “Spider” Smith, 25, Rashad Clarke, 28, and Jared Ford, 27. The men were fatally shot near the intersection of Spikenard and Cowpen Roads on 13 June 2020.
Inspector Alcott Forbes, Corporal Kevin Greenslade Jr, and Police Constable Courtney Hall, the officers involved in the incident, were present in court. A five-member jury has been empanelled.
Police previously reported the men were in a white Honda Accord parked near Spikenard Cemetery. As officers approached, the vehicle allegedly fled, and the men reportedly opened fire, prompting officers to return fire.
Constable Fox testified that she received a Glock 9mm pistol, serial number BEGR551, for testing after it was reportedly recovered from the vehicle occupied by the deceased. Displaying the weapon in court, she noted it appeared to have bodily fluids on it. A magazine containing 11 unfired rounds was also submitted.
Photographs previously shown in court depicted the same weapon next to the body of one of the deceased inside the vehicle.
In response to K Melvin Munroe, counsel for the officers, Constable Fox explained that two 9mm bullet casings recovered from the scene were tested and confirmed to have been discharged from the same weapon. She added that the bullet found embedded in the vehicle’s dashboard was also fired from this Glock pistol.
Under cross-examination by Maria Daxon, attorney for the estates of the deceased, Constable Fox confirmed that the weapon was retrieved from the scene but said she could not determine its owner.
She further stated that she could not specify when the firearms in question were discharged, as that determination does not fall within her department’s remit.
Constable Fox also said she received bullets and bullet fragments extracted from the bodies of the deceased for ballistic testing.
She confirmed testing two Colt .223 Remington rifles and a Sig Sauer 9mm pistol assigned to the officers involved in the shooting, all of which were found to be functional. She stated that casings recovered from the scene matched these weapons — with 22 .223 cartridge casings linked to one rifle and 17 to the other. However, she was unable to confirm the exact number of rounds fired during the incident.
Ms Daxon questioned why Constable Fox had only received the officers’ firearms for testing on 30 April and 5 May — during the inquest — raising concerns about a five-year delay between the incident and the tests.
Constable Fox responded that there is currently no policy mandating a specific timeframe for testing weapons. She explained that the single forensic laboratory in the country handles a wide array of cases, which affects processing times.
She told Mr Munroe that the weapons had been submitted to the police laboratory on 14 June 2020, the day after the shooting. She assured the court that the evidence had been securely stored and that the delay in testing would not impact the results.
Angelo Whitfield marshalled the evidence.
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