MARCIA Dunbar, the government forensic expert who analysed swabs taken from the back and palm of the right and left hands of the seven youths killed by the police at Braeton in St Catherine last year March, has testified that based on the various levels of gunshot residue found on some of the swabs and extracts taken four of the men, it was possible that they may have fired guns.

But Dunbar, was resuming her testimony Wednesday, after a three-week adjournment, said that her analyses showed that Dane Whyte, one of the seven, did not reveal the presence of gunshot residue.

Prosecutor Carrington Mahoney, who led the evidence in chief from Dunbar at the inquest into the killing of the seven at the St Catherine Coroner’s Court in Spanish Town, said that the evidence from the forensic expert showed the possibility that the deceased had fired weapons. But, he said that there was no evidence of certainty that the deceased had fired guns.

Under cross examination by attorney Richard Rowe, who is representing one of the deceased, Tamayo Wilson, Dunbar said that cross contamination of gunpowder residue from one body to another was possible if bodies touched.

But she told the inquest that analyses of swabs and extracts from the back of the left hand and the palm of the right hand of Wilson, showed the presence of gunshot residue at the intermediate and trace levels respectively.

She added that in the case of Andre Virgo, the swabs and extracts from the back and palm of his right hand revealed the presence of gunshot residue at the intermediate level, Dunbar testified.

It was also possible, she said, that the deceased Christopher Grant had fired a gun as analyses of swabs and extracts from the palm of his right hand and the back of his left hand showed the presence of gunshot residue at elevated levels. The presence of gunshot residue at trace levels was also found on the swabs and extracts from the back of Grant’s right hand and the palm of his left hand, Dunbar testified.

At the same time, analyses of swabs and extracts from the back of Reagon Beckford’s right hand and the palm of his left hand revealed the presence of gunshot residue at elevated levels. Gunshot residue at trace level was also found on swabs and extracts alleged to be from the palm of the right hand of Beckford, the government forensic expert said.

Dunbar told the inquest that to determine that there was gunpowder residue, the trace elements nitrate, lead, antimony and barium had to be present when she tested the swabs. The presence of nitrate, the primary trace element in gunpowder residue, is known to be present if the chemicals, when applied to the extracts of the swabs turns blue. When the swab is placed under the microscope, the number of nitrate particles found, determine whether the gunpowder residue level is elevated, intermediate or trace, she added.

Under cross examination from Rowe, Dunbar said that the manner in which the men were handled from the time they were taken from 1088 Fifth Seal Way in Braeton, to the Spanish Town Hospital and then to the morgue, could have resulted in the cross contamination of gunpowder residue from one body to another.

She said that contamination could have been transferred during the course of the bodies being moved from the hospital to the morgue coming into contact with each other.

Sergeant Fitzroy Davis, who took three of the men to the hospital, testified at the inquest, under cross examination, in March that when he got to the hospital, three of the men were removed by porters from his jeep and placed on one stretcher.

Detective Sergeant Devon Harris of the Scenes of Crime Section at CIB headquarters also testified at the inquest that when he went to do the swabs, he found the bodies in some cases touching on a sheet on the ground in the yard at the Spanish Town funeral home morgue.