Cops who kill innocent persons in a shoot-out are being urged by Public Defender Howard Hamilton, QC not to lie about the deed but to admit to their action as, he insists, it is not murder.

Hamilton said police acknowledgment that they had accidentally killed or shot innocent persons would “restore the credibility of the police force and spare relatives the hurt and humiliation of trying to clear the names of their loved ones”.

In an interview for the weekly Sunday Observer column, The Desmond Allen Interviews – part two of which will be published July 10 – the public defender defined murder as “the intentional killing of another without lawful justification”.

“If the police are involved in a shoot-out and an innocent person not involved in the shoot-out is hit by a police bullet, and they are not aware of it, that is not murder. So for God’s sake, admit it!” Hamilton pleaded.

Hamilton did not cite any specific case, but was obviously referring to cases like the 2003 killing of two elderly men in Flankers, St James, when cops first claimed that they shot them in an early morning shoot-out but later admitted it was accidental.

He said when police lied about accidental killings, his office had to await the outcome of a trial, no matter how long it took, before seeking compensation on behalf of the families of those killed.

Hamilton admitted that he had been criticised for not taking action quickly enough in cases of police shootings, but noted that he was often hamstrung while a trial was underway.

“When the police admit to their wrongs, my office will be able to take up the cause of the deceased to seek compensation on his/her behalf. If there is a dispute as to whether the deceased was innocent or not, I would have to await the decision of the court, however long it takes,” he said.