A CRY Of INJUSTICE In JAMAICA: Family of slain cop in Hanover knocks INDECOM ruling, wants judicial review

BY HG HELPS Editor-at-Large helpsh@jamaicaobserver.com  Sunday, May 08, 2016    

The family of slain police constable K’Mar Beckford is fuming over the ruling by the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) that no action should be taken against the police inspector who shot him dead 13 months ago in Hopewell, Hanover.

A Cry Of  Injustice

INDECOM, in a report dated April 14, recommended that no disciplinary action be taken, nor criminal charges laid against Inspector Wayne Jacobs, the man who admitted to shooting Beckford 13 times in what was reported as a robbery attempt at a bar owned by Jacobs. The incident occurred on April 4, 2015.

The family, led by Beckford’s mother, Lenorah Thomas, a guidance counsellor by profession, challenged the report that the young policeman was in the process of robbing the bar early in the morning, and suggested that he was murdered.

In a letter to INDECOM Commissioner Terrence Williams dated May 2, the family described the ruling as a “travesty of justice” and questioned the credibility of the organisation set up eight years ago to probe such incidents involving the police. “We put forward to the Commission that there are grounds on which to charge Inspector Jacobs... We propose to the Commission that its ruling lacks credibility and was done only on the basis of a police version and statements from witnesses in support of Inspector Jacobs,” Thomas wrote on behalf of the grieving family. She was responding to the INDECOM report at the invitation of the agency.

“You have further arrived at your decision by failing to use the benefits of ballistic and forensic pathological analysis. Elements within the police department have corrupted the investigation and INDECOM has not done much to the credibility of investigating and detecting it. Like the police, you have not used the benefit of scientific data as well as other data to appropriately present the facts,” Thomas said in the letter, copies of which were dispatched to Police Commissioner Dr Carl Williams, Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn, chairman of the Public Services Commission Prof Gordon Shirley, head of the Inspectorate of Constabulary Assistant Commissioner Ray Palmer, Williams Campbell of the Coroner’s Office, and Jamaica Police Federation Chairman Sgt Raymond Wilson. more