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Deadly riddle - Family considers new procedure as autopsies in alleged rogue cop drama raise fresh questions

Published:Friday | May 10, 2019 | 12:00 AMLivern Barrett/Senior Staff Reporter

The results of autopsies conducted on a civilian and a policeman killed under controversial circumstances in St Catherine two weeks ago have raised more questions regarding the events of the fateful night. The two died following a wild, high-speed chase and gunfight between an off-duty policeman and three of his colleagues who allegedly murdered a businessman at a party in St Catherine two weeks ago.

The results of the autopsy performed on civilian Kevron Burrell made no reference to any bullet wound. Instead, they indicated that he died from blunt-force trauma.

Further, the post-mortem performed on the body of Corporal Rohan Williams, one of the alleged rogue cops implicated in the businessman’s death, found that he, too, had died from blunt-force trauma, making no reference to bullet wounds, sources told The Gleaner yesterday.

The findings have not been resting well with Burrell’s father, Michael, who said that the document listed the cause of death as blunt-force trauma to the neck. He insisted, however, that his son was shot three times by a policeman.

Michael told The Gleaner that that on the day of the autopsy, he was asked to identify his son’s body, but he did not witness the procedure as he was ordered by doctors to leave the room. He was later told by the Independent Commission of Investigations that a bullet was removed from his son’s hand.

“So I don’t understand. I want to do it over. Some crazy things going on,” he said.

Kurt Fraser, one of the cops implicated in the incident, claimed in a TVJ interview that Burrell and Williams were shot and killed by a man he believed to be a member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

“This [the result of the autopsy] means that they did not die from gunshot wounds but as a result of the motor vehicle collision,” asserted one senior law-enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A post-mortem conducted on the body of Sheldon ‘Junior Biggs’ Daley, the businessman whose death triggered the fierce gunfight through the streets of the Old Capital, revealed that he died from gunshot wounds. Investigators said, however, that no bullet fragments were found in his body.

“X-rays are to be done on him to see if they can locate any fragments,” one investigator told The Gleaner yesterday.

The investigator reasoned that there was nothing odd about the absence of bullet fragments in Daley’s body.

“Fragments in a body do break up and they can be very hard for a pathologist to recover. So that’s not unusual in itself.”

It is alleged that Daley was shot dead by three rogue cops at a party in Chedwin Park, located on the outskirts of Spanish Town, on the morning of April 28.

HOT PURSUIT

According to reports, the cops attempted to flee the scene in the Nissan motor car and were challenged by an off-duty policeman who witnessed the incident.

A high-speed chase and gun battle ensued before the Nissan crashed into another vehicle at the intersection of Brunswick Avenue and Jobs Lane.

Williams, who was one the three cops in the Nissan, and Burrell, a visitor to the island who was travelling in the other vehicle, were later pronounced dead.

In the TVJ interview, which took place while he was being sought by investigators, Fraser said that after the collision, he saw “a black car, I think one of those Ford cars” arrive on the scene.

“I saw this man come out. He was a police officer. Why I know he was a police officer because he had on a leg holster … . Him come out of the vehicle, him and some other men, and that vehicle that we collide in. I saw when him go over there and fire a shot in that vehicle,” Fraser claimed.

“I heard when a man was saying, ‘Is mi son that you killing. Is mi son. Mi son don’t do anything’ or words to that effect,” the cop continued.

Fraser said the man, who had alighted from the black car that was chasing him and his colleagues, then went over to his vehicle and “shot Corporal Williams, I think in the head or face. Somewhere in the upper body.”

Fraser denied that he and the other accused cops had any involvement in Daley’s killing. He said the businessman was killed by men travelling in a Nissan Tiida motor car and that he and his colleagues were chasing the getaway car when they noticed the off-duty cop in the black car hot on their trail.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com