Shot in cold blood - Tearful survivor gives harrowing tale of point-blank attack
Published:Monday | February 13, 2017 | 12:00 AMLivern Barrett
A Clarendon man was yesterday allowed time by a High Court judge to compose himself as he recounted, amid tears, the moment in 2010 when he said a police constable used a high-powered rifle to shoot him at close range in broad daylight.
The man, whose name is being withheld, was giving evidence as the main prosecution witness in the trial of the first so-called police death squad case, which began in the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston.
Police constables Collis Brown, also known as 'Chucky', and Roan Morrison are on trial for murder and wounding with intent. They were charged following an incident near the May Pen town centre in Clarendon on February 13, 2010 in which Phaebian Dinnal was shot dead and another man suffered gunshot wounds.
The witness used a rag to wipe tears from his eyes as he pointed at Brown - seated in the prisoner dock of the spacious courtroom - as the man who pointed "a long gun" at him from the back seat of a Toyota Probox motor car before he heard a loud explosion.
"A get the shot, but I did not hear the shot. Is like someone fire a shot over there so, but I could hear like somebody a beat a drum inna mi stomach," the witness said, relaying the moment he realised he had been shot.
CALLED HIS NAME
He shared that he was walking along Windsor Avenue, heading towards the May Pen Mall, when the silver Toyota vehicle stopped beside him and one of the occupants called out his name.
"What part of that person you saw?" asked Ann-Marie Fuertado-Richards, the prosecuting attorney who led the witness through his testimony.
"The first thing I saw was his face," the man replied.
"Were you able to identify him?" Fuertado-Richards continued.
"Yes, Miss, it was Constable 'Chucky' Brown," the witness replied, pointing at the constable and referring to him by what he said was his street name.
The witness said Brown was seated in the back of the car dressed in a black T-shirt and a pair of short black pants with a "tam" [cloth hat that had two holes in it] over his head.
According to his testimony, the policeman "pointed a long gun" at him before ordering, several times, that he get down on his knees.
"Me tell him seh me nah go dung pan me knee because me nuh do anything," he related.
DEAD MAN ON TOP
The witness said at that point Morrison exited the passenger side of the vehicle and Brown again ordered him to get on his knees. He said he again refused and saw Brown use his left hand to slowly pull the tam over his face before a loud explosion went off.
"Him push out the long gun [out the car] and I heard the loud explosion an me drop pan me face. My head was by the running board [the lower metal panel between the front and rear wheels] of the car and I feel somebody put dem foot in my head," the witness testified.
"It was Mr Chucky Brown. After him shoot me, him put him foot inna me head."
He said while on the ground he heard two more explosions and later saw the body of another man lying along Windsor Avenue.
The witness said he was placed in a bus along with the dead man, but could not see where they were taken because the corpse was placed on top of him.
"The dead man did a drain out pan me, him marrow, everything," the witness explained.
He will continue giving evidence today.