(Jamaica Gleaner) The fresh probe launched into the controversial death of Jamaica-born Rasheed Edwards has forced some residents of a New Jersey township to raise questions over the transparency of the police and post-mortem reports.
Edwards, 32, was found unresponsive in the garage of his Wall Township, New Jersey, home on March 1 with a gunshot wound to the right side of his head.
His death was ruled a suicide by the county, but after a series of protests and legal manoeuvring by his family, the New Mammoth Common Law Enforcement Unit agreed in August to review the case.
Two autopsy reports, conducted by Middlesex County Medical Examiner Dr Lauren Thomas and independent pathologist Zhongxue Hua, initially concluded that Edwards had committed suicide.
His family rubbished those conclusions and protested that no gunshot residue was found on Edwards’ hands and that the weapon was found in his left hand although he was right-handed.
Edwards’ relatives say attorney William Ewing, who represents their interest in the probate of his estate, informed them that there may have been errors in at least one of the reports.
Zhongxue had reportedly cited that Edwards bore tattoos on his cheeks, lips, hands, lower abdomen, and genitals.
His relatives claim that their loved one bore only a single visible tattoo.
“He must have examined a different body,” Rasheed’s sibling, Kevin Edwards, told The Gleaner.
Rasheed Edwards was living with a white spouse in Wall County, New Jersey, which, according to the Demographic Statistical Atlas of the United States, is 80 per cent white, with blacks accounting for a meagre three per cent and Hispanics constituting 2.2 per cent of the population.
“The place is known as ‘White Wall’, and a simple search will show the history of Ku Klux Klan activities there for centuries. Nothing has changed,” Dameon Edwards, one of Rasheed’s brothers, said.
“We have had to keep pressing their buttons for them to investigate the matter. My brother was murdered. He did not take his own life.”
BASE FOR KKK
Sections of southern New Jersey have been a stronghold for the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) – a centuries-old race hate-based organisation spread across the US. Wall Township was once the regional headquarters for the KKK, and black residents have long complained of systemic racism.
The KKK is known for its fierce stance against race-mixing.
No information has emerged of the KKK’s involvement in Edwards’ death.
Edwards’ grieving relatives have retained criminal defence attorney Edward Bertucio.
Bertucio confirmed that the unit would seek to determine whether Edwards was killed in his own home or had taken his own life.
“We met with them, and they are treating the relatives as victims. It is a step in the right direction to determine whether it was suicide or murder,” Bertucio told The Gleaner. He stressed that the investigation was in its early stages.
The news was accepted with apprehension by his family.
“We still want to know what they are doing. Yes, they have opened it up, but we want to know what is happening every step of the way,” his brother continued.
The Gleaner has also obtained several videos said to be downloaded from surveillance cameras at Edwards’ home.
In one of the videos, a voice, purportedly Edwards’, is heard uttering: “You can shoot me. It don’t matter.”
His relatives claim that the video is proof that their loved one was not alone when he lost his life.
The controversial death and what Edwards’ family calls “a deliberate cover-up” by Wall Township law enforcement led to a peaceful march through the streets of the Jersey Shores town last month, with protesters demanding that a thorough probe be launched.
“We just want justice for Rasheed. If all indicators are that he took his life, then we will accept it,” Dameon Edwards said.
“But right now, all indicators don’t, and we are very wary of law enforcement in that town.”
