AfriKa CRY BLOOD

I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney, 23, of Hutson’s Alley, Reed Street, St Michael, died on June 17, 2008, at Land Lock, St Lucy. The circumstances of his death were investigated by the Coroner’s Court and recently, Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris in her verdict said his death was due to misadventure. The following is Part 6 of an edited version of the verdict which began on Monday. It concludes in tomorrow’s DAILY NATION.

ONCE AGAIN, Walkes, who was particularly sensitive to the situation and who had conveyed as much by way of the time-honoured gesture showing that someone is deranged, asked why he was on the cliff and he said he was under a lot of pressure. Walkes asked him why, Maloney said his back was hurting him…

Walkes then wanted to know from Maloney if he had ever seen a psychiatrist. Headley took Maloney’s ID which had been found in his wallet and went to the van and reported to Operations Control. He told Operations Control that he believed that Maloney’s faculties were not intact and that they would bring him in…

When Headley returned, he told Maloney that he would like him to accompany them to the police station to interview him. These may have seemed like ominous words to a young man of extreme sensitivity…

Headley told Maloney to put on his clothes. Maloney put on his shirt and pants and seemed to indicate he was ready. Maloney was at this time smiling, they both reported.

Headley pointed out that he had not put on his boots. Maloney replied that he had been told to put on his clothes but not his boots. He cooperated, nevertheless, zipped up his bag and placed it on his right shoulder. He began to walk between the police officers towards the van. The officers maintained stoutly that they did not touch [him]…

[Anthony] Collymore corroborates that up until the time he was looking he did not see the officers making physical contact with the man on the cliff. The officers said that given the nature of their dialogue with I’Akobi Maloney, they saw no need to hold onto him. . .

But as they were walking to the vehicle, Headley slightly ahead and to his left, Walkes a step behind and to his right they suddenly realised (rather than saw) that he had dropped his bag and turned swiftly from them and had run towards the edge of the cliff.

Walkes said he was taken completely by surprise, but as soon as he collected his wits, he turned and ran after Maloney but by then he had gained about 20 feet ahead of Walkes. Headley turned in time to see him running away from them and Walkes giving chase. Walkes and Headley both claim that as Maloney reached the edge, he jumped off without hesitation.

They ran to the cliff’s edge and looked down and saw that he had landed on a flat rock shelf. Walkes and Headley said this was some 80 feet below but one could only suppose that this was how it appeared in their traumatised state.

[Scientific measurement of the drop indicated it is about 40 feet].

Maloney was still alive and scrambling to his knees but at the same time a huge wave broke on the shelf and over him and the surf turned red with his blood. The officers said they realised he was badly injured. Walkes shouted and begged him not to move, to stay where he was on the rock.

Maloney looked back up at them and then rolled off the shelf into “the raging sea” as they both put it.

Headley ran back to the van and reported to Operations Control. He returned to the cliff edge where Walkes was still shouting out Maloney’s name; telling him to stay on the rocks; whistling to get his attention while the sea battered his body below. Walkes was running along the cliff’s edge as the tide took Maloney further and further away.

After seeing the very rough waves beating about him, the officers saw when his body became motionless and appeared lifeless. His body floated for a while and eventually submerged.

Meanwhile Collymore, having made his thank you call, then heard a motor vehicle passing in front of his house and noted that it was a Barbados Defence Force van with a police officer and Barbados Defence Force soldiers in it. He gave them directions but assured them that everything was now under control, based on what he had seen. The officers told him the contrary and said the man had jumped into the sea and they sped off. Collymore then decided to go to Land Lock to see for himself what was happening.

…Coast Guard had responded to the urgent call for help, and they did attempt a rescue but were forced to withdraw because the seas were too rough. This led to some confusion about what the family was told by Reece and Dottin who were detailed to inform the Maloney family of the tragic event.

They erroneously told Mrs Maloney that the search was called off because the area was too dark and dangerous and that there was no point her going to the scene.

Lance Corporal Corey Applewaithe, with a team of five were shown [a] track by Major [David] Binks [disaster preparedness officer, BDF] at Land Lock at 11:15 p.m. And the team of divers descended the cliff.

He and Marson Morris, an expert in water rescue and specially trained in recovery operations from cliffs, gullies and other dangerous terrain went into the sea at the base of Land Lock cliff. They made several attempts to remove Maloney’s body where the head was trapped between the rocks . . . They then decided that they would use their safety rope to tie around his feet.

This rope was originally intended to haul them back up if they were in danger of being washed out to sea. After six to eight attempts they were able to secure the rope around his feet.

In our search for justice and truth in the matter of the untimely and unnatural death of Maloney we must not fail to stop and consider how dangerous this work was, how heroic these men were in attempting and succeeding in this almost remarkable retrieval operation.

Dr Jasmine Crump, the police medical officer pronounced death at 0145 hrs [1:45 p.m.]. Even here we had some confusion because at one stage she said 11:55 p.m.on June, 18, 2008, but this seems to have come about because she was summoned at that time but had to wait there for some considerable time because the rescue had to be completed.

Uncertainty

It was this sort of uncertainty about some of the details that led to the great misgivings in the hearts and minds of the Maloney family which would have been exacerbated by a general mistrust harboured by the Rastafarian community in their dealings with the police.

Mrs Maloney was given incorrect information at the outset. One suspects innocently so, but in the circumstances it set the tone for a plethora of misunderstandings, accusations, vicious rumour, gossip and unnecessary antagonism. She was informed of the death of her son at about 9 p.m. on June 17, 2008 by Sergeant Reece and Constable Dottin. It is noted that his body had not yet been retrieved nor death pronounced.

According to her, she was discouraged from going to Land Lock, she was told she would not be able to recognise him because his face was all smashed up. She was told, she said, that she would be informed in the morning about the resumption of the search.

No call came. From that point she went from police station to police station and eventually to Forensic Sciences Centre making some wild charges, largely because there was either lack of information or incorrect information and so the controversy escalated.

The court is not condoning any of this hysterical or unbridled behaviour but it must be recognised that a lot of this confusion could be minimised by lines of communication being clear and straight forward.

There is no doubt, despite protestations to the contrary, that Mrs Maloney’s encounter with Reece and Dottin on June 17, 2008 was unfortunate and the matter not sensitively handled. This was evident even in the court where a certain hostility was demonstrated by Dottin, even towards the court itself.

Vented spleen

Mrs Maloney in turn, in her search for information went to the Police Station at Crab Hill and vented her spleen on the hapless Station Sergeant Morris who sought only to assist. At Holetown, mother and son seemed to have reacted very negatively as well to Headley’s attempts at sympathy and his description of how traumatised he was by the ordeal.

Finally, Mrs Maloney and family went to the Forensic Sciences Centre, although asked to wait to be accompanied by Morris, and terrorised Rashida Francis, forensic support officer, into allowing them to see the body.

They went to the extent of manhandling the body which meant that forensically the evidence was tainted.

Finally, they sought to stop Dr Winskog, pathologist from carrying out the court order . . . to conduct a post mortem. At no time did they approach the coroner with their concerns so that it was not possible to address them, by way of ensuring that their chosen representative observed the autopsy or make any other order.

Head injuries

Dr Winskog found that the primary cause of death was drowning but a secondary cause was a ruptured liver and multiple head injuries with a swollen brain which were as a result of blunt force trauma consistent with a fall from a great height. As he pointed out, the liver cannot be ruptured by a kick or being hit with a fist. The lacerations he found could only come about from a fall from a significant height. There was no hole in the back of the head as alleged by the Maloney family. No drugs or alcohol was found in his body.

This court is satisfied, given the evidence, not just of police officers, but onlookers, Coast Guard Personnel, Dr Crump, Shawn Hall of Two Sons Funeral Home… as well as the special operations crew of the BDF that the lacerations, cuts and so on found on Maloney’s body are consistent with the battering his body received at the foot of Land Lock cliff while they tried over several hours to retrieve it from the watery depths.

The court, from the evidence adduced, cannot therefore make a determination that he was beaten before being thrown over the cliff. Walkes and Headley were issued with firearms and ammunition, these were not discharged or used during the encounter.

Tags: Anthony Collymore, Barbados Defence Force, boots, choppy sea, Coast Guard, Constable Sandra Dottin, Constable Wendell Walkes, Corey Applewaithe, Coroner, David Binks, Dr. Carl Winskog, Dr. Jasmine Crump, Faith Marshall-Harris, firearms, Forensics Laboratory, Holetown Police Station, Marguerita Maloney, Marson Harris, mental faculties, operations control, Rastafari community, rumours, safety rope, Sergeant Trevor Reece, Shawn Hall, Two Sons Funeral Home, verdict, Wingrove Headley

This entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 11:52 am and is filed under Coroner Inquest, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.