Two policemen who allegedly shot a man to death at Mahaica in July were on Wednesday arraigned on manslaughter charges and were released on $150, 000 each, `C’ Division Commander Marlon Chapman confirmed.
Constable Marlon Cruickshank and Elvis Jones ranks attached to the Cane Grove Police Station were not required to plead to the joint charge which was read to them by Magistrate Suanna Lovell at the Mahaicony Magistrate’s Court.
They made their court appearance two weeks after the Director of Public Prosecutions recommended the charge. It is unclear what caused the delay.
They will make their next court appearance on January 15.
Police had said in a press release that around 15:00 hours on July 4, ranks of the Cane Grove Police Station responded to reports that Gulliver, who was reported to be mentally unstable, was threatening a woman with a cutlass at Strathavon.
During their investigations the police were attacked by Gulliver, who was armed with the cutlass, causing them to resort to the use of force and he was shot to his body, the release said. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the Mahaicony Hospital.
The windscreen and other parts of a motor vehicle that was used by the ranks to get to the scene were also damaged by Gulliver during the incident, the release said.
The police’s Office of Professional Responsibility launched an investigation into the matter.
There were varying accounts of how the shooting occurred. Gulliver’s relatives insisted that he was unarmed at the time when he was shot in his back. His brother Kerry Emanuel has disputed the police’s claim that Gulliver was mentally ill saying that he was a farmer.
