THE corporal who discovered two of the four firearms found in the house at Braeton where seven youths were killed by the police in March 2001 in an alleged shoot-out, testified at the coroners inquest yesterday.

Corporal McFarlane, in the evidence in chief led by Herbie McKenzie, assistant director of public prosecutions, said that when he entered the house he picked up a .38 revolver and a homemade shotgun from the floor.

When he saw the first gun — the .38 revolver — he said to Crime Management Unit head, Reneto Adams, who was coming in behind him, “see one a de gun deh”. A constable, who was already inside the house when he entered, showed him and Adams two other 9mm guns found in the house.

Corporal McFarlane said he took the two guns from the constable and handed over the four guns found in the house to Superintendent Harry Daley and Superintendent Walker who were in the car park.

McFarlane testified that when the large police party got to Braeton, Adams and Inspector McKenzie and about seven other policemen went to 1088 Fifth Seal Way. He and Adams went to a window where Adams called out from one corner that he had warrants. He stood at the other corner of the window and tried to pry it open. After getting the window about a half-inch open, he said he heard an explosion and saw fire coming from a hole in the window.

“I curse a bad word and jumped to the ground. Mr Adams was also on the ground and the bottom of his foot was in my head,” McFarlane said, adding that Adams shouted “unuh surrender” and something about John Crow.

After a brief silence, he heard gunshots coming from inside and outside the house. After another lull in the shooting, Corporal McFarlane said he heard a heavy banging at the back door of the premises “like somebody lick a door” then he heard more shooting from the rear.

When the shooting ended, he heard the voices of policemen in the house and somebody gave Adams a light.

McFarlane said that when Adams went to the back door of the house and turned the light into the house, he (Adams) said “Jesus Christ, a so much a dem in yah.”

McFarlane said that while Adams was standing with the light, as if in shock, “I slipped past him and go inside”.

The corporal said that he counted three men lying in separate places. One man was lying close to the back door, another was some distance away, further up from the back door, and a third man was to the right. He saw a fourth man lying partially on a settee and on the ground and there were also other men lying in the house.

Under cross-examination by Maurice Saunders, who is appearing for the estate of Dane Whyte, one of the victims, McFarlane admitted that he was vexed at the way in which Constable Dwight Gibson had been murdered at the Above Rocks Police Station on March 1, 2001. “He was asked for water then he was shot,” McFarlane said.

The police have said that Constable Gibson’s killer was among the seven youths killed at Braeton and that the gun used to shoot him was recovered at the house.

McFarlane said that Saunders’ suggestion that the youths inside the house were taken outside alive then taken back into the house and shot was not true. He said that that he did not see and hear some of the men pleading outside the house.

Braeton clarification

A report on the Braeton inquest appearing in yesterday’s Daily Observer, headlined “Cops showed signs of stress after Braeton incident” incorrectly gave the impression that Crime Management Unit head, Reneto Adams named and described a civilian picked up by the police at Cumberland on March 14, 2001, as an “informer”.

Adams, in his evidence on Monday, did not name the civilian but when he was asked by police attorney Oswest Senior-Smith why he directed that one of three civilians picked up by the police be taken home to Cumberland, said that it was important to protect his identity because he was an “informant”.

The inference was drawn that the civilian to whom Adams referred was the same one who was transported to Braeton based on earlier evidence at the inquest by an individual who said that he had been taken from his home in Cumberland.

We apologise to Senior Superintendent Adams and the civilian and for any impression formed that there was a prior relationship between Senior Superintendent Adams and the civilian involved.