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 last Friday, Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris in her verdict said his death was due to misadventure. The following is Part 4 of an edited version of the verdict which began on Monday. It continues in tomorrow’s SUNDAY SUN.

MALONEY HAD certainly never mentioned any personal problems, any problems with work colleagues or with cement dust and sinusitis nor articulated any problems working at Arawak, apart from the temporary status.

Once again the resignation was a total surprise and he thought the response, “I am taking responsibility for my back”, sounded totally unlike Maloney.

It now appeared to Adesegha that when Maloney came to his lab that morning briefly and then left with his bag to see Collymore he had already made up his mind to resign.

Approximately 10:15 that morning, Maloney called his mother who was at her usual spot in Holetown under the trees close to the taxi stand. The conversation between them, as reported seems contradictory. She reported that he said “Mumz, Mumz, Mumz, I feel real good, I fire the work. I was here in Speightstown for a while just checking the scenes and it feels boring and monotonous. (more…)

The question of how I’Akobi met his death has still been left unanswered after approximately 10 months of deliberations both inside and out of court. Although the coroner had dismissed the idea of I’Akobi going to the cliff with the intention of taking his own life, the verdict of misadventure is still debatable.

In her context it was defined as the act of running from the police which inadvertently resulted in his death. Our family vehemently refutes the coroner’s claim in this regard; as the act of running towards what the police perceived to be a 60 ft. drop head first with hands outstretched in this ‘mad’ dash for freedom quintessentially describes the act of suicide.

Although the coroner removed the police’s postulations of why he had taken his life that being (depression, homosexuality, madness and drug association), she inadvertently or intentionally accepted the single report submitted by Headley and Walkes as the irrevocable truth. (more…)

by Maria Bradshaw

I’AKOBI MALONEY was not killed by police, neither did he commit suicide. His death was ruled a misadventure.

SERGEANT WINGROVE HEADLEY (right) being escorted into the officer of the Coroner's Court by uniformed officers yesterday.

Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris handed down this decision yesterday six months after the start of the inquiry into the death of the 23-year-old Exhibition winner whom police said jumped off a 50-ft cliff at Landlock, St Lucy, last June 17, as he was about to be escorted to the Holetown Police Station.

The coroner found there was no evidence to substantiate that Maloney had been unlawfully killed by the police or that he committed suicide.

She surmised that Maloney, a Rastafarian, may have felt some form of harassment when the police requested that he accompany them to the station and so “he panicked and made a sudden dash for freedom”.

But while the coroner cited the mutual distrust between the Rastafarian community and the police and called for improved relations between the two, the verdict was not accepted by the many Rastafarian brethren who turned out yesterday.

They gathered in the courtyard surrounding Maloney’s grieving mother, Marguerita, and let it be known that there would be no peace between them and the police.

Marshall-Harris spent close to two hours reviewing the case and analysing the evidence. (more…)

A NEW WITNESS took the stand yesterday at the I’Akobi Maloney Inquest at Coroner’s Court.

Shon Boyce, who admitted to being a homosexual from his childhood days said he was introduced to Jason Collymore, a former witness at the inquest, in 2003.

He was introduced to Collymore, he said, and they subsequently got involved in a same-sex relationship where he was the outside man, since Collymore, who works at the Cement Plant, told him that he had a Rastaman and he, Boyce, should never come to the house when the man was there.

He said Collymore lived at White Hall Main Road in an apartment, and he did not know the Rastaman’s name as it was never told to him, but he used to pass a man on the stairway going down smiling as he would be going up. (more…)

by Maria Bradshaw (Nation Newspaper)

I’AKOBI MALONEY ran from two police officers and casually jumped off an 80-foot cliff at Land Lock, St. Lucy.

That was what Acting Sergeant Walter Headley told the Coroner’s Court yesterday.

The police officer described how Maloney stood on the cliff in an X position - with his hands outstretched and feet spread - then ” without hesitation” jumped off, landing 80 feet down on what Headley called a shelf.

The police officer said that despite efforts by the police to get his attention, the young man proceeded to roll off the shelf into the choppy sea where he became trapped between rocks and was battered by the sea. (more…)

A fireman who called police after seeing a stranger in the area of his house in Pie Corner, St Lucy, earlier this year, yesterday denied to a coroner’s inquest that his actions were bigoted.

Anthony Collymore, who lives at Glitter Bay, Pie Corner, St Lucy, testified that he did not call 211 simply because he saw a man with Rasta dreadlocks, but because he saw a stranger in an area well-known for illegal drug activity.

Collymore was the fifth person to give evidence on the first day of the coroner’s inquest into the unnatural death of I’Akobi Maloney.

He told the court that on arriving home on June 17, he noticed a barebacked man with dreadlocks stooping about six feet from a cliff’s edge near his home. Using his binoculars, he noticed a white boat out to sea. (more…)

by PR/CA (www.nationnews.com)

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…)

Rastafari Community of Barbados
July 2008

If love was a thing that money can buy.
The rich man would live and the poor man will die.

Nothing in the name of transparency explains the most mysterious and trivialised death of the Late Tacuma Maloney. Contrary or otherwise to official records which relate of a report to local law authorities regarding a person suspected as a drug smuggler. This report was based on error.

Consistent to records in the print and electronic media, Ras Tacuma was consequently apprehended by peace officers of the state based on an invalid premise, (more…)

by Phillipe Aimey (www.nationnews.com)

“WOE IS ME! For my glory hath departed, and the crown of my splendour hath fallen, and my belly is burned up because this my son hath departed.”

Those were the words of King Solomon in the book Kebra Negast, and a similar feeling has overwhelmed Maggie Maloney after the death of her son. (more…)

by Tim Slinger & PCA (www.nationnews.com)

“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…)

Rastafari Community of Barbados
PETITION

This is dedicated to the defense of human rights and equal recognition before the law and those blossoms that were cut off when blooming brightest

AfriKa CRY BLOOD

WHEREAS rumours associating the most untimely death of a most priceless and cherished member of the Rastafari Community of Barbados, Ras I A’Kobi Tacuma Maloney to the interception, proliferation or possession of drugs are wholly inaccurate and totally unjustifiable; and,

Whereas Ras Tacuma was a very law-abiding citizen, and a recent graduate of St. Augustine Campus, University of the West Indies, Trinidad, who has no history of drug possession or trafficking; and,

Whereas reference to drugs degrades the status of this most honoured and valued young and gifted member of the Rastafari Community to that of a common criminal; and,

Whereas such a status is deemed to be unworthy and unmeritorious to this sacred individual and such an association will only serve to vilify the character of The Late Ras Tacuma and also to tarnish his hitherto spotless image and reputation; and,

Whereas those institutions which lay claim to standards of excellence and efficiency must also maintain and adhere to standards of excellence and efficiency; and,

Whereas relevant authorities should either provide just and adequate evidence to confirm this ghastly and obscure loss of life in connection to drugs or uncompromisingly remove all question marks and any element of doubt surrounding the character, the name and the reputation of the late Ras Tacuma as it relates to drugs and their proliferation;

We, the undersigned people of Barbados and the friends of Barbadians all over the Caribbean and the world, call on the Government of Barbados through the Prime Minister and the Attorney General to engage private and independent investigators to fully investigate the death of I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney, and bring the perpetrators to Justice.

August 2008

by Yvette Best (www.nationnews.com)

“I LEAVE the laws of Maat to deal with those who took my son.” The words of a grieving Rastafari mother Margaret Maloney, who refuses to believe that her first-born I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney jumped to his death at Landlocks near Cove Bay, St Lucy, on Tuesday evening as stated by police.

Maloney told the DAILY NATION she was disturbed by the inconsistencies in the information she had received from police thus far. Police and coast guard officials pulled Tacuma’s body from the water around 1:30 a.m. yesterday. Officers on the scene Tuesday night said they responded to call of a drug landing around 5:30 p.m., where they observed and interviewed Tacuma.

“Initial investigations reveal (more…)