Battered man’s plea

Aaron Morgan said he often called the police to intervene in domestic violence at his home but he is not convinced that his cries for help were taken seriously because he is a man.

He again raised an alarm on Monday morning, but that assistance had tragic consequences for his common-law wife, 35-year-old Tashika McLeod, who was fatally shot by the police.

McLeod is the mother of six children, the youngest a four-year-old.

“If me did know, me wouldn’t call them,” Morgan said as he wept at his home near Molynes Road, St Andrew, which rests along the Sandy Gully.

History of violence

Morgan disclosed that McLeod had a history of violence and had made claims to the police that he was the aggressor.

“Police nah send nobody fi come rescue me all the while me want rescue. All the while Mumma do the tings dem and go a station say me beat her up, and when me go down there dem nuh want hear weh mi a say,” he said.

McLeod and the four-year-old son she shared with Morgan moved out of the dwelling and returned on Sunday to find another woman at the home, The Gleaner understands.

She reportedly became enraged and fought Morgan, destroying everything in sight.

“She give me one thump inna mi mouth, buss mi mouth, and mi jus hold her and lean her up on the zinc, then mi run off, and she start mash up everything inna the house,” Morgan said, adding that food, a fan and television were tossed into the gully.

While McLeod, Morgan, and another person were being transported by the police, McLeod is alleged to have been wielding an ice pick and two knives and was shot by a cop who reportedly feared for his life.

Earlier, Morgan had summoned the police intent on quelling the conflict before events turned more explosive.

He alleged that a cop threatened to kick McLeod, who challenged the police.

“She start retaliate, tek up stone and fling off the officer and run up pon him … . One buss one shot in the air and the other one buss one shot fi scare her.

“She kinda stop, but she still a go up to him and me say please put down the knife … . A police! The police tell her and she nah drop the knife … ,” Morgan told The Gleaner.

McLeod reportedly kept the weapons in her possession and went berserk in the service vehicle as it made its way to the police station.

Abused men intimidated

Gender and development civil-society advocate Judith Wedderburn said that physically abused men were intimidated by the prospect of reporting that they were victims of domestic violence – a taboo in low-income communities like Maverley with turbo-charged views of machismo.

“They are supposed to manage it. But what does manage it mean? Does it mean you are less of a man because you just cannot go in the (police) station and face the men?” Wedderburn questioned.

“... If the men are not willing to go to a doctor and get a medical report as the evidence then, separate and apart from the police in the station making fun of him, what does he have to stand on?”

Silton McLeod, Tashieka’s father, said that he is seeking justice for his daughter’s killing.

The Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) said it has launched a probe into the incident.

INDECOM has received 1,098 complaints on state security personnel in 2020. The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) accounted for the lion’s share of 85 per cent, with 930 reports. That represents a 48 per cent rise on the 625 complaints recorded in 2019.

On April 20, Prime Minister Andrew Holness during a statement to the House of Representatives disclosed that the JCF has undertaken a review of its domestic violence intervention policy and protocols.

Holness said more than 300 supervisors and managers have had domestic violence intervention training since 2020, with 168 in the last three months as they go through their development courses.