CRIME MANAGEMENT Unit boss, SSP Reneto Adams, gave a statement to the Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI) on the Braeton killings two months after they occurred, despite a request from the BSI within a week of the incident.
Explaining his reason under cross-examination by Roger Davis, who represents the estate of Andre Virgo, Mr. Adams said that he gave a statement to the BSI on May 14, after being asked for one within the first week of the incident, which occurred on March 14.
When asked if this was not a long time after being asked to make a statement that he gave one, Mr. Adams said that sometimes officers give statements and sometimes they do not. Furthermore, statements were voluntarily made, "As far as I know in terms of the law, statements are voluntary things. No one can force anyone to give a statement before he wishes," said Mr. Adams.
Mr. Adams also gave a graphic description of the seven injured men he saw, when he went to the house shortly after they were shot on the morning of March 14 last year.
According to Mr. Adams he saw the first body as he entered the house and switched on a floodlight he was using.
That "first body was lying face down with the head in the direction of the back door, in a part of the house that I would call the living room." The next body he said he saw was in the kitchen by the stove, his head was also facing the back door. The third body he saw on the floor nearest to the last window on the right side of the house. The fourth was sitting in the settee, in the living room.
Senior Superintendent Adams said that he found the other injured men near one of the bedrooms in the house. The fifth man was found in the passage with his head partially in the bedroom, the sixth was also in the passage with his head turned towards the living room. The seventh body was found in a kneeling position in another passage with his head almost touching his knees.
With regard to the time his weapons were sent to ballistics for testing, Mr. Adams said that he did not have anything to do with when they were sent to be tested.
Under cross-examination by Dennis Daley Q.C., who is representing the estate of Regan Beckford, Mr. Adams said that he did have a warrant for the arrest of Conroy Robinson and Christopher Grant. When pressed on whether or not he had a warrant to enter 1088 Fifth Seal Way, Braeton Phase 3, Mr. Adams said that information he received at Cassava Piece qualified him to enter both Cumberland and Seal Way.
He was then asked if he would be surprised if he heard that DSP Cornelius Walker had in January testified that he never went down to Seal Way on the morning of March 14, 2001. Mr. Adams replied, "I am not a man who is easily surprised, but if he said that he had never gone down to the house, that would have been a mistake."
The Braeton Inquest is attempting to ascertain under what circumstances and who is responsible for the deaths of seven young men in Braeton last year March. The seven, Andre Virgo, 20; Curtis Smith, 20; Tamayo Wilson, 20; Lancebert Clarke, 19; Dane Whyte,19; Christopher Grant, 17; and Regan Beckford, 15 were killed by the police in a pre-dawn operation.
The Braeton Inquest continues today at the St. Catherine Resident Magistrate's court.
