DPP rules cop to be charged for infant death in car
Published:Monday | June 20, 2022 | 12:11 AM
WESTERN BUREAU:
The Jamaica Constabulary Force should charge the St Elizabeth police sergeant whose 12-month-old daughter died after being locked in his car, the director of public prosecutions (DPP) has recommended.
DPP Paula Llewellyn handed down the ruling last week, The Gleaner has learnt.
The file has been submitted to the Office of the Commissioner of Police.
The policeman, Detective Sergeant Sheldon Dobson, who is attached to the Black River Police Station in St Elizabeth, reportedly forgot his daughter in his car in January on the station compound between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.
The infant, who was found in the vehicle unconscious, was rushed to the Black River Hospital, where she was pronounced dead during treatment.
Dobson was expected to take the child to the daycare but went to work.
Both of the child’s parents are reportedly employed to the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and are stationed in the parish.
Persons close to the family say Dobson would not have deliberately or recklessly left his daughter in the car.
“He is too much of a good father to do that,” said a family friend.
During the family’s ordeal, members of the community said that it would have been the child’s third day at daycare. Her grandmother, who would have been taking care of her under normal circumstances, had fallen ill, causing the parents to have the child enrolled in daycare.
“I know people are going to say she is a child and how could he forget, but sometimes even your phone is in your hand and you are looking for it,” said a family friend.