COPIES of both unedited and edited video footage taped by CVM TV camera man Milton Reid on March 14 last year at Braeton in St Catherine, where seven men were killed by the police, were viewed by the coroner, jury and attorneys at the Friday’s sitting of the inquest hearing the case.

The edited tape was that of the CVM newscast of the Braeton killings, aired on the station’s 8:00 pm newscast on March 14, last year.

The tapes were viewed after Reid took the stand and give evidence.

Among items on the unedited tape were that of CVM’s senior broadcast journalist, Michael Pryce, preparing a stand-up report from the scene of the killings at Braeton. A number of policemen were lined up behind him as he got ready for the report.

At the beginning of the report Pryce said “there are those who will say it’s a cold blooded murders; no can’t say that can’t say that”, after which he was cut.

There were at least five false starts to the report as each time he said “there are those who will say it was murder”, he stopped and started again. Pryce also said that “there are those who will question the necessity of this operation…and there are those who will say they should have been given a chance but the lives of the police…” These comments were not on the edited version of the tape on the CVM 8 o’ clock newscast on March 14 last year.

On the unedited tape also, Superintendent Harry Daley told Pryce that in addition to the seven men killed during the alleged shoot-out “some three to five men escaped” as the community is densely populated and the police “have to be careful to save lives”.

And Senior Superintendent Jevene Bent told Pryce “if you kill a police then we are going to hunt you down”, adding “I am really proud of the police … I don’t think my team came to kill”.

Bent and Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams were seen talking to a group of civilians and when Adams told them that the police had identified themselves to the deceased as policemen and were fired upon, someone in the crowd was heard saying “a lie that”.

Bent later told the residents that if they think what happened was not justified, they could complain about the police team involved in the operation.

There are also interviews done with a man, who said that three of the men he saw at the Spanish Town morgue, were among the persons who held up the bar at Old Braeton, where the principal of the Hartlands All-Age School, Phillip Morris, was killed on the night of March 13, last year.

Pryce had testified that when he and the camera man arrived at the open lot near Fifth Seal Way, at 4:56 am, they saw Adams, Daley and Superintendent Cornelius Walker. There was also a barefooted young man with his hands tied behind his back. He said that he only saw one civilian, a young woman dressed in green nurse’s uniform, walking away from the open lot and Fifth Seal Way.

On the unedited tape, two women, one in a floral shorts and another in a green top could be seen walking away.

During cross examination Pryce said that he never asked the police who the young man with his hands tied behind his back was.

On the edited tape aired on the CVM 8:00 pm newscast, Pryce reported that “several of the youth escaped but one was arrested”, at which time the camera focussed on the back of the youth whose hands were tied behind his back, as the person arrested.

Reid testified Friday that when he and Pryce alighted from the car in the open lot at Braeton at 4:56 am on March 14, he immediately started filming. He said that after he got sufficient footage at the parking lot, “I went down to Fifth Seal Way”. He told the inquest that he then went towards 1088 Fifth Seal Way, where the men were killed, but was not allowed to enter the premises.

The camera man said that he spent three to four hours at Fifth Seal Way that morning, during which time he taped as much as I could. He said he did not hear any explosion during the time he was taping. Reid said also that he did not hear anyone from 1088 Fifth Seal Way calling out.