AfriKa CRY BLOOD

ATTORNEYS Andrew Pilgrim (right) and David Comissiong (second right) speaking to Mandela Maloney, brother of deceased I’Akobi Maloney, as a friend and his mother Marguerita Maloney look on.

DID police officers engage in profiling when they encountered I’Akobi Maloney, a six-foot Rastafarian standing alone on a secluded cliff?

Was there some level of aggression or conflict between them and that Rastaman?

Was he pushed or was he trying to escape?

These were scenarios which attorneys for the Maloney family, Andrew Pilgrim and David Comissiong, submitted to coroner Faith Marshall-Harris during their addresses, when the inquest into the 23 year-old man’s death resumed in the coroner’s court yesterday.

They asked the coroner to reject the evidence of the two police officers Sergeant Wingrove Headley and Constable Anthony Walkes who were with Maloney when he allegedly jumped off a 50-ft cliff to his death.

Comissiong told the court that given that the police had received a report about a boat, a Rastaman and drugs in the area that it was fair to assume they went to Land Lock, St Lucy, “all keyed up”. (more…)

by Barbados Advocate

WHEN a forensic pathologist performed a post mortem on the body of 23-year-old engineer I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney, among other things, his lungs were inflated.

That was te evidence of Dr. Carl Winskog of the Government Forensic Sciences Centre at the Coroner’s Inquest into the death of Maloney, formerly of Reed Street, City.

The forensic pathologist said that on June 20, 2008 when he performed the post mortem, he also found blunt trauma to the head, multiple lacerations to the head, arms and legs, and a laceration to the liver. He attributed the cause of death to drowning. (more…)

by Barry Alleyne

THE LEGAL TEAM representing the family of former Barbados Exhibition winner I’Akobi Maloney is exploring the possibility of having his body exhumed, so a secondary post-mortem can be done independently to prove cause of death.

Attorney-at-law Andrew Pilgrim, who is working in conjunction with David Comissiong, explained yesterday his legal squad was not on a witch-hunt of the Royal Barbados Police Force, but simply seeking to “cover all bases” in determining how the 23-year-old Maloney died.

Maloney died on June 17 this year, a few hours after tendering his resignation at the Arawak Cement Plant in St Lucy, where he was employed as a trainee engineer. (more…)

by People’s Empowerment Party

ACCORDING TO A REPORT in THE NATION newspaper last Wednesday, Attorney-General Freundel Stuart cavalierly dismissed the People’s Empowerment Party’s call for an effort to be made to stage a demonstrably “independent” investigation into the death of I’Akobi Maloney by quipping: “Mr Comissiong was not down there [at the St Lucy scene of the death] as far as I am aware, and none of the people who are shouting were down there.”

Mr Stuart then proceeded to state that he had received a written report from the police on Maloney’s death; that there was “no recording of anything out of the ordinary” in the report; and that the normal course of events would follow, with the usual Coroner’s Inquest being held.

The PEP is disheartened that our new attorney-general is seemingly unwilling to think “outside of the box”, and to reach for the substance of justice, rather than its mere form. (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…)