The government has agreed on compensation for the death of David Bacchas, the 66-year-old taxi driver who was shot by cops two years ago, but deputy Solicitor-General Patrick Foster declined to confirm or deny that the settlement will be upwards of $7 million.

However, Foster did confirm that only a “few details” were yet to be settled in the Bacchas deal and that negotiations for a settlement in the killing of Cecil Brown, 65, during the same incident, were “far advanced”.

“In the case of David Bacchas we are on the brink of a settlement, as a settlement sum has been agreed,” Foster told the Observer yesterday.

“I would say that there are only a few details left to be worked out,” he added.

Brown, a newspaper vendor, and Audrey Stephen, 65, were in Bacchas’ taxi in Flankers, Montego Bay one early morning in October 2003 when the car was fired on by police, who initially claimed that they had come under fire from gunmen.

Police, led by the then Montego Bay crime chief Derrick ‘Cowboy’ Knight, were at the time on an operation in Flankers, searching for guns and criminals.

Stephen was injured in the incident.

The killing and injuring of the elderly trio led to a riot in Flankers, and investigation and the eventual charging with murder of five constables:

. Bibzie Foster:

. Kevin Williams;

. Kadien Smith;

. Donald Thomas; and

. Metro McFarlane.

A sixth policeman, Constable Howard Hardial, who was assigned to the Special Anti-Crime Task Force (SACTF), would also have been charged with the two counts of murder, but was killed by gunmen before the ruling was made.

The cops are expected to go on trial later this year and it was not immediately clear what, if any, impact a settlement will have on their case.

There have been, in the past, complaints from rights groups about the settlements offered by the government – on average $9 million to $10 million – to the estates of victims of police homicides.

Yesterday, Foster, saying that no document had yet been signed, refused to disclose what sum was agreed in the Bacchas case.

“I am not at liberty to disclose the agreed settlement,” he said.

He referred the Observer to the lawyer for Bacchas’ estate, Oswald James, who, however, was off the island.

In the case of Brown, the lawyer for his estate, Garth Lyttle, declared himself satisfied with the negotiations so far.

“I am satisfied based on the criteria for assessment of damages in respect of death negotiations,” Lyttle said. “So, I think it is going well to date.”

He, too, though, declined to say what offer was on the table from the government.

– Whytetk@jamaicaobserver.com