Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
A POLICEMAN wept in court yesterday as he related how a civilian was shot dead while he was searching him in a house at Kraal, Clarendon, on May 7, 2003.
Constable Donovan Thompson said that at the time, the man had his hands bent at the elbow and his palms were "facing forward". Thompson said when he searched the man, he found no weapon. He bent down to go towards the man's knees when he heard explosions and the man's body slumped to his right side, he told the court.
He said he and the man were alone in the room when he
was shot.
Thompson was testifying in the Home Circuit Court at the trial of Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams and the five other policemen charged with the murder of four civilians at Kraal on May 7, 2003.
11-Y-O CROSS-EXAMINED
Eleven-year-old Shanice Stoddart completed her testimony under cross-examination yesterday. She admitted to being confused about the May 7, 2003 Kraal incident.
The witness was shown her statement of May 13, 2003, and it was pointed out that nowhere in the statement did she say that the policeman squeezed Angie's (Angela Richards - Chen Chen's girlfriend) throat, causing Angie to release her, before Shanice was led into the yard, a claim she made in testimony last week.
Constable Thompson said he went with the police party to Kraal and SSP Adams told them that they were going there for 'Chen Chen', whose real name is Bashington Douglas.
On the way, they stopped in May Pen where three informants went into minibus with them to Kraal. One of the informants disclosed where they could find Chen Chen. Sometime in the afternoon, SSP Adams received a call on his cellphone while they were at Kraal. Thompson said he overheard SSP Adams asking what he was wearing. When the phone call ended they went to the premises at Kraal.
He said when the five policemen who are now charged with SSP Adams left the bus, he heard gunshots and took cover in the back seat.
CHILD BROUGHT TO HIM
After the shooting, he got out of the minibus and went under a mango tree in the yard. While there, SSP Adams brought out a child to him. He said SSP Adams went back inside the house and he later heard gunshots behind the house.
Cross-examined by defence lawyers, Thompson admitted that in 2001 he was being investigated by Superintendent Cornwall 'Bigga' Ford for a stolen motor car and licence plates. He said, too, that he was being investigated for a shooting incident.
Thompson, who now lives abroad, denied suggestions that it was in exchange for the matters to be not pursued that he was testifying. He denied being associated with the One Order gang in Spanish Town and also denied that SSP Adams had spoken to him about his association with unscrupulous persons in the Old Capital.
