A HALF-PAGE report confirming that the fatal shooting of seven young men occurred at Braeton, St. Catherine, on March 14, is all the police have so far turned over to the Coroner at the St. Catherine Court.
Clerk of the Court Kenneth Smith yesterday told The Gleaner the only information Coroner Andrea Pettigrew-Collins had received from police was "a report that isn't even one page, just telling us that the incident occurred."
He said legal proceedings into the case could not begin until the Coroner had been provided with detailed reports from authorities at the Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI), which is investigating the matter.
"We have nothing really. We are not in a position to do anything because the investigation is still proceeding and we have no control over the pace of the investigation," Mr. Smith said.
He said the Court was awaiting a file from the BSI, which was expected to contain forensic reports, eye-witness statements and other evidence relating to the incident in which seven young men were fatally shot by the police.
"We cannot proceed without a complete file," he stressed, while admitting investigations of this nature tend to take a long time.
Meanwhile, a senior official at the BSI yesterday told The Gleaner investigations into the incident were "at an advanced stage". The source, who declined to give further details on the matter, however strongly denied earlier reports that statements relating to the incident had been collected and were to be shortly delivered to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Several organisations across the island have united in a call for the holding of a Coroner's Inquest into the police operation at Braeton which claimed the lives of Tamoya Wilson, Lance-bert Clarke, Andre Virgo, Ronald Beckford, Christopher Grant, Dane Whyte, and Curtis Smith.
Following the incident, international human rights watchdog Amnesty International also severely criticised what it had deemed excesses in the way local police conduct their duties.
