Buckfield cops stay behind bars

Carl Gilchrist, Gleaner Writer

Three policemen detained in the controversial police shooting of a man in Buckfield, Ocho Rios, will remain behind bars, at least until Thursday, after a writ of habeas corpus filed by the attorney-at-law for two of them failed in the St Ann's Bay Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday.

The submission by attorney-at-law Oswest Senior-Smith was denied as Resident Magistrate Carolyn Tie said there was insufficient information to rule on the matter.

Investigators from the Bureau of Special Investigations are still scrambling to put together a case against the three policemen. They are working alongside investigators from the Major Investigation Task Force.

Tie gave Thursday as the next day for arguments to be heard regarding the application, at which time a ruling is likely to be made.

Senior-Smith said the application for habeas corpus will be renewed on Thursday, and will seek to have his clients charged or released immediately.

The attorney, in the meantime, has expressed concern at what he described as "the indecent haste" in which the policemen were taken into custody, even before a statement was collected pertaining to the incident.

"How I'm construing the information relayed to the court is that absolutely no investigation was done before. No statements, apparently, were secured from witnesses because, even if they had half of a statement, they could have gone on to proffer charges formally against those police officers," Senior-Smith said.

Video contradicts reports

Police Commissioner Owen Ellington had ordered that the police officers involved in the shooting of Ian Lloyd be immediately taken into custody after an amateur video clip carried on a TVJ newscast showed policemen beating a man on the ground and what appeared to be a policeman shooting him in full view of a crowd.

The video seemed to contradict reports from the Constabulary Communication Network that Lloyd was killed after he attacked the police.

The police had gone to Buckfield to apprehend Lloyd after he allegedly stabbed a woman to death in the community.