THE ROYAL BARBADOS POLICE FORCE has started an official investigation into the behaviour of the Maloney family after a controversial verdict last month by Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris.
Emotions ran high in the courtyard on April 24 after the coroner deemed that the former Barbados Exhibition winner I’Akobi Maloney had died by misadventure at Landlock, St Lucy, last June 17, the same day he resigned from his job as an engineer at the Arawak Cement Plant.
Verbal Insults
Members of the family, along with members of the Rastafarian community, were on hand for the verdict, and a number of verbal insults and threats were allegedly hurled at police on duty in the courtyard.
Sergeant Wingrove Headley, one of the two policemen who were on duty when Maloney died, and who testified that Maloney ran from them and jumped off a 50-foot cliff to his death, was also in the courtyard and was allegedly the subject of insults and threats.
A reliable source informed the WEEKEND NATION that all the police on duty within the confines of the courtyard that day have been required to give official statements to a superior officer, in an effort to determine if any members of the Maloney family, or the Rastafarian community, went too far with their verbal outrage and, in so doing, broke the law.
“We are doing an investigation. I would rather not comment any further,” said Assistant Superintendent Curvan Harvey yesterday, the man in charge of the investigation.
Maloney’s legal team said yesterday the news of such an investigation was disturbing.
The family’s attorney-at-law David Comissiong said: “The family’s legal team has not been informed of any investigation into its [the family's] actions, but should it be so, that would be very unfortunate.”
Comissiong said emotions were very raw that day and the environment very charged.
Heart-rending
“The responses of the family, as expected, were heart-rending. One would have anticipated the police would have had the maturity to understand the situation and empathise with family members,” he added.
Comissiong said the decision to investigate the matter further was surprising since Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin had “offered an olive branch” to the Rastafarian community, saying he was willing to meet with them.
COMMISSIONER OF POLICE Darwin Dottin says he’s willing to meet with the Rastafarian community to discuss any problems the group might be facing.
But he wants them and Barbados alike to know that the Royal Barbados Police Force does not engage in singling out any particular group, regardless of race, colour or creed.
“I want to state categorically that the Police Force does not enforce the law by targeting any groups. We carry out our duties without fear or favour and with sensitivity,” Dottin told the SUNDAY SUN yesterday.
He was reacting to charges from the Rastafarian community that dreadlocked I’Akobi Maloney met his death through police profiling.
On Friday, Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris in ruling that the 23-year-old Barbados Exhibition winner’s death was by misadventure, urged the force to look closely at its relationship with the Rastafarian community, saying there was a high level of mistrust.
To this end, Dottin said the force was willing to meet with the community to discuss any issues of concern. (more…)
JASON COLLYMORE denied yesterday that he had a homosexual relationship with Shon Boyce and reiterated that I’Akobi Maloney never visited his house.
Collymore, a supervisor at the Ararwak Cement Plant, told Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris yesterday at the coroner’s inquest into Maloney’s death that everything Boyce told the court last week was “absolutely untrue”.
Taking the witness stand for the third time during the inquest, he told the court that three days after giving his testimony on January 13, he received a telephone call from Boyce.
“He said to me how come he was involved in the inquest, that the police was pressuring him to make a statement that I was a homosexual and that he saw I’Akobi at my house.”
Collymore said he was so frustrated that week with the number of calls he had been receiving from family and friends that he told Boyce “do what you want to do” and then pressed out the phone. (more…)
THE POLICE INVESTIGATOR who carried out the investigations into the death of I’Akobi Maloney said yesterday he was not concerned that the statements of the two police officers who were with Maloney when he died, were identical.
Assistant Superintendent Curvan Harvey told the coroner’s inquest investigating the young man’s death that he was more concerned about the typographical errors contained in the statements.
At the time he was being questioned by Andrew Pilgrim who is representing the Maloney family. (more…)
Harvey (centre) leaving the inquest yesterday evening followed by Headley (left) and Walkes. Picture by Sandy Pitt.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Curvan Harvey was grilled by attorney Andrew Pilgrim yesterday when he gave evidence at the Coroner’s Inquest into the death of 23-year-old I’Akobi Maloney.
ASP Harvey was the senior officer who carried out the investigations into the incident. He was questioned extensively about how he conducted the investigations and the statements he obtained, particularly those from the two police officers, Sergeant Wingrove Headley and Constable Wendell Walkes, who were with Maloney when he allegedly jumped off a 50ft cliff at Land Lock, St Lucy.
He was also criticised by the attorney for failing to carry out a scientific examination of the firearms which were issued to the two officers.
AN ATTORNEY has suggested that police officers who were dispatched to Land Lock, St Lucy on the day I’Akobi Maloney died conspired to say they did not see how he died.
Andrew Pilgrim, who is representing the Maloney family, made this comment after Constables Anderson Ellis and Kevin Boyce said they did not focus on Land Lock on June 17, even though they were each in close proximity to the area.
Ellis said he was dispatched to Cove Bay and that he was focussing on a white boat which was out at sea.
He stated that he heard Sergeant Wingrove Headley transmitting on the VHF radio that he had Maloney in custody but he never looked over to Land Lock which was next to Cove Bay because he was busy looking at the boat. (more…)
CORONER FAITH MARSHALL-HARRIS chastised a police officer for failing to make written notes surrounding the death of 23-year-old I’Akobi Maloney.
During his testimony on Thursday, Police Constable Wendell Walkes told the coroner that he did not make any notes because the incident was clear in his mind.
But Coroner Marshall-Harris told the detective that it was a matter of credibility and not simply having a good a memory. (more…)
ACTING SERGEANT Wingrove Headley admitted to Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris that he made an error in his statement which he gave about the death of I’Akobi Maloney.
In that statement, Headley wrote that after Maloney fatally jumped off a cliff he took possession of his haversack which he said “contained the same black pants and grey shirt” and other items.
But the coroner drew it to his attention that he had previously said in his statement that Maloney put on those clothes in his presence and she asked him to clarify what he meant.
The officer explained that he meant that it was the bag which contained the clothes which Maloney had put on and that it was an error for him to use the word “same”. (more…)
A telephone operator in the Police Control Room said she received a telephone call from an unknown man on June 17, informing her that he had spotted a “Rastaman” standing on a cliff at Coves Bay, St Lucy.
Grace Boyce-Codrington said the caller also stated that he had seen a boat at sea in the same area.
Boyce-Codrington was giving evidence at the Coroner’s Court during the inquest into the death of I’Akobi Maloney, who police testified jumped over a cliff at Land Lock, St Lucy, and died.
She said she received the call around 16:43 hours and immediately relayed the information to a Sergeant Browne, whom she overheard contacting the various agencies and stations, including Crab Hill and District “E”.
The telephone operator also told the court that three minutes after receiving the call the same man called back to thank her for the police’s quick response to the scene. (more…)
THE POLICE OFFICER who dealt with I’Akobi Maloney minutes before he died, said yesterday that he and his colleague discussed what they were going to write in their statements surrounding Maloney’s death.
When Andrew Pilgrim, who is representing the Maloney family, asked Acting Sergeant Walter Headley why he and Constable 1320 Walkes’ statements were identical, Headley said the two of them “had a discussion”
However, he denied suggestions by Pilgrim that they agreed to write exactly the same words or and that they copied each other’s words. His explanation for the identical statements was that “we saw the same thing”. (more…)
NEITHER of the two police officers who were first on the scene at Landlock, St. Lucy touched I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney.
That’s according to the evidence yesterday of acting Sergeant Wingrove Headley, who also told the inquest into the death of Maloney that neither he nor colleague, Police Constable Walkes “had any physical contact” with Maloney.
“There was no verbal confrontation with him, we did not push him over and we did not cause him to jump,” the policeman added. (more…)
ATTORNEY-GENERAL Freundel Stuart says he will not do anything to undermine public confidence in the police force or the coroner.
He said he had “faith” in the Coroner’s Office which would begin its inquest into the death of I’Akobi Maloney on November 10.
Stuart, who was speaking during a $10 million resolution that would go towards some finishing touches for the Judicial Centre on Whitepark Road, made his position clear yesterday in the House of Assembly after the issue of the relationship between the police and the community was raised by the Member of Parliament for St Michael South-East, Hamilton Lashley. (more…)
GOVERNMENT has received a special report from the Royal Barbados Police Force regarding I’Akobi Maloney’s death.
But Attorney-General Freundel Stuart isn’t rushing to judgment on the former Exhibition winner’s death on June 17 at Landlock, St Lucy.
A justice committee formed to protest the police’s report, as well as the People’s Empowerment Party’s president David Comissiong, issued statements in July calling on the Commissioner of Police to suspend the officers until the investigation was complete.
“That is not normal procedure. You can only do that if the findings reveal that they would have acted improperly . . . if there is evidence to prove it. Mr Comissiong was not down there as far as I am aware, and none of the people who are shouting were down there,” Stuart told the DAILY NATION. (more…)
The Barbados Police Force states that there was never any physical contact between its officers and I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney, whose death has brought much concern to his family.
In seeking to clarify misconceptions concerning issues raised following the death, the Force states that I’Akobi was never apprehended by Police.
THE ROYAL BARBADOS POLICE FORCE is clearing the air concerning the death of I’Akobi Maloney.
The force issued a Press release on Wednesday stating: “A number of articles, attributed to various authors, have been appearing in the Press, in which some issues have been raised following the death of I’Akobi Tacuma Hembadoon Maloney.
“The police would wish to take the opportunity to clarify certain misconceptions that may have been perceived following this tragedy.”
The 23-year-old Maloney died June 17 at The Land Lock, Cove Bay, St Lucy, and police reports were that he jumped to his death from a cliff there.
But there have been persistent calls for an independent investigation into Maloney’s death and last week his family queried the condition of the contents of a bag returned to them. (more…)
“THERE’S ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE to suggest any foul play in the death of I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney.”
That’s the word from police crime chief Assistant Commissioner of Police Seymour Cumberbatch, who also disclosed that investigations suggested that the 23-year-old man was going through a state of depression when he reportedly ran and jumped off a cliff at The Land Lock, Cove Bay, St Lucy, on June 17. (more…)
Emotions ran high in the courtyard on April 24 after the coroner deemed that the former Barbados Exhibition winner I’Akobi Maloney had died by misadventure at Landlock, St Lucy, last June 17, the same day he resigned from his job as an engineer at the Arawak Cement Plant.
