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… (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…)