Gov't senator testifies he saw cops shoot Grants Pen teen
Published:Thursday | May 19, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
Jamaica Labour Party General Secretary, Aundré Franklin, said yesterday that he witnessed the fatal shooting by police of 18-year-old Grants Pen resident André Thomas on September 28, 2007.
Franklin told a 12-member jury that Thomas had his hands in the air when he was shot.
He denied suggestions from the defence that he was not speaking the truth when he said he witnessed the incident.
Corporals Noel Bryan and Philip Dunstan and constables Clayton Fearon and Omar Miller have been on trial in the Home Circuit Court since May 2 for murder.
The Crown is alleging that Thomas was shot in cold blood, but the police reported that he pointed a gun at them and they fired in self-defence. A gun was tendered in evidence as the one allegedly taken from the deceased.
Franklin said he was driving along Grants Pen Road about 1:30 p.m. on September 28, 2007, when he heard gunshots and saw people from the gully bank running on to the road.
'Matterhorn' spotted
He said he saw four policemen, one of whom he identified as Corporal Bryan and who he knew at the time as 'Matterhorn'. He said Bryan was the policeman who was closest in distance to him and was not in the vicinity where Thomas was shot. He identified the other three policemen as the ones he saw around Thomas when he was shot. He said the policemen were about 50 feet away from him and he was seeing them for the first time. He said Thomas had both hands in the air and then he heard gunshots. He said Thomas fell to the ground with his head to the wall. He shouted to the police that they had shot André Thomas and then drove to the Grants Pen Police Station where he made a report to a police inspector.
During cross-examination, Franklin, who is also a government senator, expressed disappointment with the manner in which the judge spoke to him earlier in the day. He said the judge in telling him to leave the courtroom during an objection by defence lawyers had said "leave, leave" and did not say "please". In response, the judge said he did say please, but Franklin did not budge.