A defendant alleged to be the driver for the Tesha Miller faction of the Klansman Gang told the court on Tuesday that cops assigned to the now-disbanded Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Branch (C-TOC) forced him to kneel beside the body of a friend who was killed during a police operation and levelled murder threats at him while labelling him a homosexual, prior to taking him into custody in March 2023.

BJourn Thomas further claimed that he was physically abused and left with an injury to his head by the cops at the scene of the shooting. He also said the entire police team on the premises that morning “all went to purchase ice cream” from a passing truck before removing him from the location.

His claim mirrored the line of questioning by defence attorney Paul Gentles who, on Monday, in accusing the prosecution’s first witness — a detective corporal — of being the one to murder that man in cold blood, said cops had bought ice cream to celebrate afterwards.

The detective corporal, who had taken the stand last week when the trial began, had given evidence that he was part of a March 5, 2023 operation in the North Avenue, Spanish Town, area in search of an individual who is now one of the Crown’s star witnesses. He said during the course of that operation the man now being referred to by Thomas was shot dead by him during a confrontation.

Thomas, who along with 24 other alleged members of the gang said to be led by accused gangster Tesha Miller, made his accusations in a statement read into the records of the Home Circuit Division of the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston on Tuesday by an investigator assigned to the Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom).

The then 25-year-old, who has proclaimed his innocence in respect of the four counts with which he has been charged on the 32-count indictment, described how he “somehow” came to be involved in the incident because of his affiliation with the individual who was shot dead that morning.

Thomas, in his statement, said he had received a call that morning from the individual he referred to as Chargie, as he did not know his real name. He said the man, who he maintained he knew for about a year and only because he was frequently in the lane where he lived, told him he was going “somewhere” and wanted him to drive his car — a silver Latio — and keep it after dropping him off. Thomas told the investigator that he accepted because it was an opportunity to use the car to take his girlfriend to church, which would save him “bus fare”.

He claimed that upon arriving at the premises his friend got out and met “a bredda” who had been standing at the gate, after which they went inside the house. He said it was at this point, while waiting in the car for them to return, that he noticed a grey Hiace bus which passed and stopped with two female cops aboard. Those cops, he said, in approaching him pointed two long guns at him when he wound the window down to show them that he was alone in the vehicle.

He said at this point he heard “more than three explosions” coming from the premises and was ordered from the vehicle by the cops. Thomas said he exited the vehicle and lay face down in the middle of the road with his hands in the air. The accused man said when he was questioned by the cops he told them he had been coming from his home and didn’t know who lived at the house. He then said that he was taken into the yard where he saw Chargie lying on the ground in blood, appearing dead, and was questioned about his acquaintance with him, but could not answer because he was “in shock”.

He said a cop then told him to kneel beside the body and said, “A kill mi fi kill yuh enuh, bwoy,” while calling him a homosexual, and “styled” him as an “expletive”.

According to the accused man, other cops who were at the scene wanted to take him “further around to the back of the yard”, but for the objection of others who pointed out, “Camera round deh and people a video.”

He further stated that when a request for him to pull his phone was not met, he was hit with a gun on his foot by the female cop while a male cop used a 600-millilitre water bottle to hit him, injuring his head.

He said after this, Chargie’s body was removed and placed in an unmarked vehicle and taken away, while he was transported to the lock-up.

However, the evidence of the Indecom investigator, which came during questioning from the defence on Tuesday, inadvertently cast a shadow on Thomas’s evidence that cops had refrained from killing him only because cameras were mounted at the house.

The investigator, under cross-examination by defence attorney John Clarke, said she did not review any video footage in relation to the incident because, “There was none on the premises.”

Asked if she saw any cameras on the premises she said, “No, I didn’t.”

In the meantime, under further cross-examination by Clarke, she said a prosecution star witness (yet to be revealed), who the court was told on Monday had been taken into police custody that day, albeit under duress from the detective corporal involved in the fatal shooting, was interviewed by her.

Defence attorneys had, on Monday, accused the detective corporal of using his prowess as a skilled marksman with a track record of more than 10 fatal shootings to scare the former gangster-turned-star witness, into fabricating evidence against all the defendants.

The investigator had disclosed under questioning that when she interviewed the star witness he was, “very distraught”. When asked by defence attorney Paul Gentles whether this was because he had been in fear for his life, the investigator simply said, “He was crying a lot.”

Pressed as to whether he appeared fearful, she said, “Yes.” Asked if he indicated to her what he was in fear of, she also said, “Yes”, but offered no details on the basis of objections to the line of questioning raised by the prosecution.

She, in the meantime, disputed suggestions from the defence that the man killed that day had been shot in the back and had been shot more than thrice, contrary to the evidence of the detective corporal which was that he had fired two shots after the man raised a firearm at him. She also said there was no ice cream truck in sight when she visited the premises.

The matter continues at 10:00 this morning before Supreme Court judge Justice Dale Palmer who is trying the matter sitting alone.

The 25 accused, the second faction of the gang to now be tried by the courts, are to answer to 16 offences allegedly committed over the span of five years between August 2017 and November 2022, according to the case being built by the Crown.