Paul Brown and his family have been in a mentally crippling dilemma since his son, along with three other males, were killed by police on March 9 in Central Village.

The man said he wasn’t allowed to see his son’s body the same day, after a representative from the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) told him at Spanish Town Hospital that the body was too disfigured and seeing it could be traumatising.

A month later, he was summoned to identify the body at a funeral home in the parish, and he told the Jamaica Observer that the body he saw was not his son’s. A DNA test was subsequently done almost two weeks later with the mother to aid in the identification process.

The family has been waiting a few days shy of three months for answers, and after a call from INDECOM last Tuesday, it was implied that they may not get a response until the end of June.

“It is really stressing. I just need to come to a closure. It is really tough. People asking questions, and you can’t give a sensible answer as to what is happening. I just keep telling them the lab, the lab. It is embarrassing, trust me,” Brown told the Sunday Observer in an interview.

His son, Patrick Brown otherwise called Welsh, would’ve been 25 on May 9. That day, he said, was difficult for the family as they haven’t been able to lay him to rest.

“I cannot find the right words to describe how that was. It’s really tough,” the man said, noting that the mother has been having a difficult time coping.

“She is not taking it easy. She pulled down. She can’t even look at a picture of him. If you make mention of him, she just breaks down in tears. It’s tough. When I am even having a conversation with her, just to make mention of him it mash her up bad.”

Brown said he wonders if the disregard for the family’s grief is because his son was named by police as a person of interest in a shooting committed in the Central Village area — which he has refuted.

“No alarm that he is wanted. No alarm of such,” Brown said.

“He was not living with me. He was living with his siblings… the seven of them live with their mother in Central Village, but I visit the home still and give my family support and all of that. I talked to him on a regular basis, via phone and face to face, so I don’t know anything of such. I don’t know of him being wanted by any police. The only thing that was alarming to me is the hours of that morning when he was killed. The question in my mind was why he was out at that hour of the night,” he continued.

Police reports were that Patrick and three other men were killed after engaging officers in a gunfight in Zambia, Central Village, on Wednesday, March 9. The incident unfolded during a targeted operation in the community, between 2:00 am and 4:00 am, and three firearms were also seized in the operation.

The deceased include 16-year-old Deandre “Little D” Channer from Mountain View, 21-year-old Romario “Mari” Brewster from Rollington Town, and 22-year-old Nigel “Baja” Adams from Sarah Street.

Police listed both Channer and Brewster as members of the Top Burgher Gully gang and suspects in a murder committed in February 2022, in the Kingston East Police Division.

They said Adams was wanted for murder and shooting in the Kingston Central Police Division.

Meanwhile, Brown told the Sunday Observer that after learning that his son was killed on March 9, he went to Spanish Town Hospital the same day, where he was told that he couldn’t see the body. He was then redirected to the Central Police Station to give a statement.

“I went up by Central Village Police Station and when I got back to Spanish Town Hospital, I was approached by an INDECOM representative. Me and my daughter was there, and I told the representative I wanted to see my son and she said she will not allow me to see him. She said his face was disfigured and she will not allow me to see him,” he recalled.

“She said she had to take into consideration that people will get traumatised and all these things, and she stand her ground. I did not fight it.”

The family then waited for 29 days before they were contacted for a post-mortem on April 7. Brown said he went to identify the body at Archer’s Funeral Home in Spanish Town.

There, he said, the same INDECOM representative tried preventing him from viewing the body again.

“I asked her why I am here then. The only reason I was there the morning was to come and identify my son. It made no sense to me,” he told the Sunday Observer.

Eventually, he was allowed to see a body in the morgue.

“They showed me a body and the body bag was pulled as far as to his neck, so I could only see the head. The left eye was missing, so I said that’s not him. And that is on the basis of the picture I saw when he just died. I saw a picture of his dead body when he was killed. The eye was intact,” he said.

“I use that as one of the comparisons. In addition to the missing eye, the face of the person was different. I know my son. I said ‘no, that’s not him.’ So, they took me out the morgue and they said they were going to do a DNA test with his mom.”

The DNA test was done almost two weeks later, on April 20, and they have been waiting for results since.

“From there, it’s just run around. We are not getting anywhere. I don’t know,” Brown said, frustratedly.

He said to his surprise, he got a call from INDECOM on April 31.

“A lady called me from INDECOM and tried to give me some word of comfort, saying they are working on it. She said I will be getting a call four weeks from now. That would be the end of June. It is a very long wait. It is long overdue. But, when you don’t have big name, this is how things are,” he lamented.

“The lady told me that after the DNA is approved, they’ll take the body to Archer’s Funeral Home and they will inform me, and a burial order will be granted by the investigating officer. What I am understanding from that is that they will just bring a body and say yes, this is the body that the DNA proved is him, and give me a burial order so I can just take it and run with it.”

Brown said he asked if the body will be viewed before, to which she responded that she could not answer. She directed him to the funeral home.

Deputy commissioner for INDECOM Hamish Campbell, who described the situation as “an unfortunate delay”, told the Sunday Observer that the commission was also awaiting the results.

“I was aware that one of the individuals [four men killed] was not formally able to be identified because of the injuries to the person. The Government Forensic Laboratory conducted some DNA profiling to be able to pursue that. INDECOM can’t do those tests and so we are waiting, like the family is, for that formal completion of their test, and to make a statement. That is where we are and that’s where they are with their processing,” Campbell said.