EVERTON Robinson on Wednesday told the coroner’s inquest into the killing of seven young men by the police last March that the morning of the killings he heard Superintendent Reneto Adams say “me no want me name mix up because if my ship sink everybody a go down wid me”.

Robinson, the uncle of Christopher Grant, one of the seven young men killed by the police in Braeton on March 14, 2001, under cross-examination by Richard Rowe, attorney representing the estate of Tamayo Wilson, another of the youth killed, recalled making the statement on May 2, 2001 to the Bureau of Special Investigations.

Under cross-examination by Carolyn Reid, appearing for the police, Robinson also denied several bits of information in four separate statements he was said to have given to the police on March 14 and 29 and May 2 and 25, 2001. The inquest also heard that Robinson’s attorney, Michael Lorne, was not present on any of the occasions that Reid gave statements.

To a question from Rowe as to whether he had heard Adams say “the whole a dem a go dead, you know,” Robinson, who told Rowe that he could barely read, also replied “Yes”.

On Friday, Robinson told the court that the police visited his mother’s house at West Cumberland, Portmore, at about 3:45 am on the day of the killings. He said the police asked him for Chris and he told them that he (Robinson) was sick and that Chris was not there. He told the police that he had last seen Chris at Braeton. The police said that Chris had killed a policeman and told him that they were taking him to Braeton because “you a gunman, oonu kill policeman and a pretend say you sick”.

Robinson said that he was taken to 1088 Fifth Seal Way, Braeton where the seven youth were killed, in a police convoy. The house at 1088 Fifth Seal Way belonged to his sister, Ulah, who migrated and left him to oversee it. Robinson testified that the vehicle in which the police left him when they got to Braeton, was parked near the walkway from which he had a clear view of the house at 1088 Fifth Seal Way.

But in her cross-examination of Robinson, Reid suggested that he was lying when he gave evidence that he was at Braeton while the killings were taking place.

Reid: “I put it to you that no shooting was at Braeton when you were there.”

Robinson: “I am not lying, your honour.”

Reid: “Did you give a statement that on Wednesday, March 14, 2001 at about 6:30 am you received a telephone call that Chris them get shot up in the house so you go and look?”

Robinson: “That’s not true.”

On being shown the statement he signed, by a policewoman, Robinson told the attorney that the signature was his, but denied making the statement.

Reid: “This information in the statement is a lie?”

Robinson: “Yes.”

Reid: “How do you account for that?”

Robinson: “The policeman did not write what I said.”

When Robinson was asked if the statement had been read over to him by the police, he replied: “that part never read back to me”.

Reid also reminded Robinson of information in a signed statement he gave to the police on March 29 last year, stating that he last saw Chris on March 12. She suggested that it was different from the evidence he gave to the inquest on Friday under the lead of Carrington Mahoney, the deputy director of public prosecutions. Reid submitted that Robinson told the inquest on Friday that on the last occasion he saw Chris at 1088 Fifth Seal Way, Braeton, on the evening of March 13, he and a man known as “Gary Space” were “running a boat” (cooking).

Reid: “You told the police on March 29 that when you saw Chris at Braeton and you asked him if he was alone in the house he said yes. You said that you were unable to say if that was true because the lights were off and you did not go into the house but left to go to your house.”

Robinson: “I can’t recall.”

Reid: “Do you agree that this is different from the evidence you gave on Friday?”

Robinson: “Yes.”

Reid: “Do you agree they cannot both be true?”

Robinson: “Yes.”

Reid: “Which is true?”

Robinson: “What I told the court about running boat.”

Reid: “How do you account for the two different stories?”

Robinson: “I know about this one (the Friday evidence). The other one don’t sound straight… correct to me.”

Reid: “The statement I read, that’s a lie?”

Robinson: “Yes.”

Reid: “Are you saying you told the police a lie?”

Robinson: “No. Probably him don’t write down what I tell him correct.”

Reid then suggested to Robinson that he was lying. “You’re making up the story as you go along,” she said.

In the cross-examination of Robinson by Rowe, the inquest heard that Robinson’s attorney, Michael Lorne, was not present when the police took the statement from him on March 29.