-GPF ballistic expert
Neither shotguns nor cartridge casings were handed over for ballistic examination after the July 18 shootings at Linden, Detective Sergeant Eon Jackson, the Guyana Police Forces ballistic expert, testified yesterday.
“The casings are normally submitted to me along with firearms but in this case that didn’t happen,” Jackson told the inquiry into the fatal shooting of three men and the wounding of others at Linden.
He said one weapon, a .38 Taurus revolver, was provided to him for examinations.
Jackson, who has over 20 years experience in the ballistics field, said he received envelopes with two containers from Inspector Leroy Alexander and in the containers he found the foreign objects retrieved from the bodies of Shemroy Bouyea, Ron Somerset and Alan Lewis, who had been killed in the shooting near the Mackenze-Wismar Bridge.
He confirmed that the foreign objects were from 00 buckshot shotgun cartridges but he could not say what gauge. “Both containers contained 00 buckshots with copper-coat, which are components of a cartridge,” he explained, while adding that the fragments could not be linked to any specific firearm.
The witness noted that if he had been provided with the cartridge casings then it would have been possible to match them with the weapons. He also said that he had not received any firearms that might have been associated with either Assistant Superintendent Walter Stanton or former E&F Division Commander Clifton Hicken.
According to Jackson, UK-based forensic expert Dr. Mark Robinson was told by another officer, identified as “Mr. Azore,” that 00 buckshot has not been used by the Guyana Police Force since 2005 and that the GPF uses Winchester and Mossberg shotguns.
Like Robinson, Jackson said that there was no deformation nor was any debris found embedded on the pellets, as would be the usual effect after fired with the aim of a ricochet action.
Meanwhile, Assistant Superintendent Stanton, who returned before the inquiry, was asked to make necessary corroborations in order to produce an accurate list of the units deployed to Linden to perform duties on July 18 and their composition, after the document he provided yesterday was found to be inconsistent.
Audio
COI Hearing 23/12/10
“You’ll find the dates not necessarily in order… you would see that there are a few entries with respect to the 17th, then the 18th, then you have the 19th, then it starts back with the 18th, 19th and so forth and these are with respect to ranks that uplifted firearms,” Commission of Inquiry legal counsel Ganesh Hira pointed out to Stanton yesterday, when he took to the witness box for the second occasion.
Asked for an explanation for this irregularity, Stanton said that “at the time when the rank was making the entry, that rank probably thought it was the 19th and wrote the 19th rather than the 18th. That’s the only thing I can suggest. I am not sure why the rank wrote the 19th rather than the 18th. I don’t know.”
Commissioner KD Knight asked the witness how he would go about identifying what unit was deployed at the scene of the bridge and what was its composition.
“I will have to contact the former commander [Hicken] because he would have known who were the ranks he deployed after I left,” Stanton said.
“Mr. Stanton, what is necessary is for you to liaise with whosoever and provide an accurate list of those persons who were deployed on the 18th July, 2012 in relation to the activities at the bridge and with that list, the arms uplifted and the date and time that those arms had been uplifted,” Knight stated.
Knight asked that it be prepared for Monday’s hearing, saying that the list is expected to be accurate and to also offer information as to when the weapons were lodged after they were uplifted. “It is also important to know how much ammunition they uplifted and how many they returned,” Knight added.
Under further questioning by Commissioner Knight, Stanton said he had not handed in his 9mm pistol to the firearm and ammunition examiner because it was not requested by investigators. He was then asked if, out of concern of what had transpired, he had inquired whether any rank under his command had discharged any shots.
He told the commissioners he did not, since the investigation team was conducting these duties and he did not want to get involved. The witness subsequently reiterated what he had said when he appeared previously, stating that no one under his command was armed.
‘Something
went wrong’
Stanton said that he was aware that shotguns were used at the bridge and noted that he had not observed any spent shells at the scene. He added that no gunshots were heard during the time he spent at the bridge on the evening of July 18.
According to Stanton, it is usually expected that if a rank discharges a round, he would have to pick up his shell and the supervisor would ensure that this is done.
“So the procedure is that the person who discharges would pick up the spent shell and in the circumstance of the 18th at Linden, what would be done with that spent shell?” Knight inquired.
He was told that these would have to be lodged for investigators. However, Knight pointed out that Detective Sergeant Jackson had no spent shells. “And yet the evidence is that shotguns were discharged.
Now something went wrong insofar where the procedures are concerned because in your evidence, those spent cartridges should have been retrieved and the firearm examined. Isn’t that so?” Knight said.
Knight further questioned who would have been the supervisor and Stanton said that Assistant Superintendent Patrick Todd would have supervised the Tactical Service Unit but he is uncertain of the other ranks’ supervisors.
Stanton was also questioned about a claim made by APNU MP Vanessa Kissoon that he had shot in her direction on July 18. “She testified that you had passed her and you aimed and fired a shot towards her, in her direction. She testified that to this commission on the 15 of this month.
Did this happen?” Com-missioner Dana Seetahal asked the witness.
“Never. That never happened,” Stanton told Seetahal.
Also taking the stand yesterday was Inspector Leroy Alexander, of the ‘E&F’ Division, who was a part of the team investigating the homicide of the three men. He said that he questioned ranks who were deployed to the bridge but no one admitted to firing at the bridge. Recalling who he was told were armed with shotguns that day, Alexander said he could only remember Corporal Azore.
Under questioning by attorney Nigel Hughes, who is representing the interest of the families of the three men who were killed, Alexander said he had not interviewed Hicken or Stanton during his investigation.
He was also asked about the errors made in the record books and in response, he said that Sergeant Roderick English was asked about this. “I asked why the 18th come before the 17th and all these things… he told me that it was a genuine mistake,” he added.
During the morning’s hearing, vendors Reuben Bowen and Sheila Austin as well as handyman at the Pensioners’ Association Lennox Campbell and Pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh testified. While the first three testified about their experience at Linden on July 18, Dr Singh provided the commission with the post-mortem reports on the three deceased. Singh performed the examinations, with Trinidad-based pathologist Professor Hubert Daisley observing them.
