Overseas investigators promise Crawle report in 30 days
SCOTLAND Yard detectives and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who are investigating the controversial police killing of four people, including two women, in Crawle, Clarendon, are expected to hand in a preliminary report to Police Commissioner Francis Forbes within 30 days.
“Their initial role of the outside support is to scope the task in Crawle and this should take 30 days or so to complete,” London’s Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens told journalists at a press conference at the British High commission in Kingston yesterday. “Our objective is simple, to search for the truth and support the JCF (Jamaica Constabulary Force) investigation,” Sir John said. He added that the investigators “will go where the evidence takes them and (will) leave no stone unturned, even in the most challenging of cases”.
He said after the preliminary report a management team chaired by Forbes, along with members of the Peace Management Initiative (PMI), will set the direction and strategies for the investigative team to follow.
Meanwhile, Forbes said a substantial amount of evidence was gathered both from outside and inside the house where the killings occurred.
“It (the investigation) is trying to find the truth, seeking to find out what happened there. If the police is guilty it will be proved,” Forbes told reporters.
Former head of the Crime Management Unit (CMU), Reneto Adams had said he would not co-operate with the overseas investigators as they were trying to arrest the members of the dismantled CMU, which was involved in the shooting.
But yesterday Forbes told journalists that Adams had written a statement for the investigators. The statement, he said, was with Adams’ legal advisors and would be handed over to the overseas investigators later this week.
At the same time, Forbes said the preliminary report from the overseas investigators should help him to assess the progress of the investigation. “We don’t want it to drag out unnecessarily long, nevertheless we will not sacrifice professionalism for expediency,” he said.
And Sir John said the involvement of Scotland Yard detectives in the Crawle investigations should not be seen as out of place, as it was normal practice in the UK for outside forces to be called in to investigate cases of fatal police shootings. “It should be seen as part of our continuing programme of collaboration and exchange.”
Angella Richards, Lewena Thompson, Kirk Matthews and a man identified only as “Renegade” were shot and killed in Crawle last month, in what the police claimed was a shoot-out. The police also claimed that they found a loaded Winchester shotgun with 14 rounds of ammunition and a Taurus 9mm pistol with six rounds in the house where the four were shot.
But residents of Crawle disputed the police report that the four were killed in a shoot-out, charging that it was a clear case of murder as they were killed in cold blood.
Five members of the CMU, including Adams, were subsequently taken off front line duties as police commenced their probe into the shooting.
Assistant Commissioner Osbourne Dyer is leading the investigations.