A year has elapsed since chartered accountant Keith Clarke was shot dead, allegedly by two soldiers, at his Kirkland Heights home in West Rural St Andrew. But his relatives are yet to find out why and finally get some closure.

Searching for solutions too, is the Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom), the agency which took over the probe following initial investigations by the Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI) in the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

Clarke, 63, was killed on May 27 in an operation said to be an offshoot of the incursion into Tivoli Gardens, the West Kingston fiefdom of then-fugitive Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, four days earlier.

The police put Coke to flight when they entered the normally fortified community, before eventually capturing the so-called enforcer and turning him over to United States authorities, who had issued an extradition request for him on drug and gun-running charges.

On the morning of May 27, a police/military team, comprised of mostly soldiers, went to Clarke’s upper-St Andrew home apparently having learnt that Coke had been in the area.

Neighbours reported hearing loud noises outside the Clarkes’ residence, with one actually calling the family to tell them that it looked like soldiers were outside. It later emerged that the operation was led by an army major.

Neighbours also said that bullets began raining on the house and it stayed like that for over two hours.

In the end, the soldiers cut through 17 pieces of steel covering the front door, knocked down two other grilles and entered the house.

Clarke was shot 22 times, an act that was witnessed by his wife and one of two daughters, who woke up in the night to a commotion that was alien to that section of the capital as security personnel on the ground and in a hovering helicopter turned that uptown community upside down.

The family is today desperately hoping that the files can be closed on the investigations, a determination made on what happened, and most importantly, that Clarke’s name can be cleared and rumours that have emerged, squashed.

“Keith’s reputation has been badly tarnished by this whole event,” the deceased man’s younger brother and former Cabinet minister Claude Clarke told the Sunday Observer in an exclusive interview.

“The rumour mills out there are seeking to justify the action of the military and the police in the operation.

“I hear the wildest of rumours about what Keith was engaged in. They create and concoct these stories that have no logic. You hear that Keith was Dudus’s accountant, that he was Dudus’s father; that Dudus bought the house in which he lived for him, and that Keith’s wife came from Tivoli.

“The facts are that Keith never did accounting work for Dudus … he never knew him and he (Dudus) certainly never bought the house for him, as he had lived in that same house for over 30 years.

“Keith had no contact or connection whatsoever with Dudus. He (Keith) was passionately PNP… even the lizard in his yard was PNP.

“He was also passionately (supportive of the) police and he is the last person who could be seen as an enemy of the police.

“His wife, Dr Claudette Clarke, has a PhD in education and is a Justice of the Peace. The only connection that she had with Tivoli was with the school, and she would have gone there as part of her activities in education.

“Keith’s best friend, Justice Lennox Campbell, knows of no such connection. His wife and children and me, his brother, know nothing of the sort. It is obvious that there is no doubt that the police or military got information that they seemed to have misread, misunderstood or misinterpreted. They went to a place where they should not have gone,” said Clarke, who served as minister of industry and commerce and Member of Parliament for West Rural St Andrew from 1989 to 1993.

It was the first time since Keith Clarke’s death that any member of the family had spoken publicly about his rumoured involvement with Coke.

Meanwhile, word reaching the Sunday Observer is that Indecom has not made significant progress in its investigations on the matter. The ballistics report — critical in determining who fired weapons at the scene — has not been completed.

Reports that Keith Clarke fired at least one shot to ward off persons whom he thought were intruders, have also not been confirmed by police, although a senior official said that he retaliated when the men kept shooting at the house.

“He fired his pistol,” one senior officer who was close to the initial investigation told the Sunday Observer.

“It appeared that he thought that the persons outside were burglars and wanted to ward them off,” said the senior officer, who preferred that his identity not be revealed.

The Sunday Observer probe uncovered information that four soldiers barged in, spoke briefly with Clarke’s wife and daughter, then two of them headed to the bathroom Clarke was exiting, his back to the soldiers, and sprayed him with 22 bullets, several of them hitting him in the region of the lower back.

The deceased man’s brother is also concerned about the pace of the investigations, hinting that he has his suspicions that there may be attempts to slow the process down.

“I believe that persons are trying to frustrate Indecom.

“The Bureau of Special Investigations did a range of interviews, collected samples, statements and telephone recordings. They were also said to be investigating the information that they were acting on that led them there. Not even the ballistics analysis has been done up to now. They have not been able to get the ballistics lab to do the analysis or evaluation on the specimens that are critical to the weapons and missiles. I understand that there is a huge backlog.

“I think Indecom is being frustrated in its efforts to get critical scientific reports. They keep running into roadblocks,” Clarke said.

Indecom head Terrence Williams confirmed this with the Sunday Observer via telephone on Friday. He said that there were obstacles, one of which was the non-completion of the ballistics examination, but that his agency was doing the best it could to conclude the investigations.

Williams, who is also an attorney-at-law, also confirmed earlier reports that he had met with the head of the government forensic laboratory on Friday to discuss the delay in obtaining the ballistics results.

He ruled out a deadline for obtaining them, insisting that Indecom had to await the completion of the work by the forensic laboratory.

“It’s out of my hands. I wouldn’t want to give a timeline, as that aspect (deadline on ballistics report) is out of the reach of my officers,” Williams said.

Indecom had earlier stated that other aspects of the investigations had been completed.

The BSI had also confirmed earlier that ballistics tests were done on more than 75 weapons that were involved in the operation.

In the meantime, for his family, the wound left by Clarke’s violent death cannot properly heal.

Claude Clarke said one of the things that he missed most about his slain brother were the daily arguments they had with each other.

“Keith and I spoke every day. We often speak about cricket, things like whether (Brian) Lara was better than (Lawrence) Rowe; how good was (Usain) Bolt, to things like the right approach to crime fighting. He liked the style of (former Senior Superintendent Reneto) Adams and felt that it was the correct one. I usually disagreed.

“His family is coping as best as they can. It was really a major blow to us. He was really attached to his children… Keith is always home,” Claude Clarke said, still maintaining that the security forces got it wrong.

“It’s almost like a defence strategy, where you get to the point that you can accept this kind of barbaric act from the security forces,” he said.

Clarke said that even after the investigations end, he intends to spearhead a move that will take the matter further.

“I want a finding from the courts that would make it vastly more difficult for the authorities to disregard the rights of a Jamaican, whether he lives in Tivoli Gardens or Kirkland Heights,” he said.

The United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, where Keith worshipped, has also weighed in on the issue.

Rev Oliver Daley said that a letter that was addressed to the Ministry of Justice, and copied to several key agencies and individuals had not been acknowledged, or responded to.

The letter sought clarity on the issues behind Clarke’s death.