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.
That’s what members of the Rastafarian community want the Royal Barbados Police Force to do before there is any meeting between the two bodies to discuss a long list of issues.
This was only one of the conditions outlined by the Justice Committee at a Press conference held at the I’Akobi Youth Resource Centre, Tweedside Road, St Michael, yesterday.
It was called to respond to Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin’s invitation to meet and discuss the issue of “Rasta profiling”. (more…)
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…)
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…)
The Royal Barbados Police Force needs to look closely at its relationship with the Rastafarian community.
This recommendation came from Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris yesterday as she declared the death of Rastafarian I’Akobi Maloney a misadventure and suggested that he may have felt harassed by the barrage of questions from the police and that he “panicked and made a dash for freedom” when asked to escort them to the station.
The coroner noted that there was a high level of mistrust from the Rastafarian community against the police to the extent that Rastafarians had become paranoid and felt that there were constant forms of victimisation against them, even when that did not exist.
ARMED MEMBERS of the police Task Force were on hand to control the crowd at the Coroner's Court after yesterday's verdict into I'Akobi Maloney's death last year.
Tension
“There seems to be a great deal of tension, fear, mistrust and suspicion by the Rastafarian community, but by the same token, the community needs to look carefully at some of their actions which suggest that they are harbouring a victim mentality and may be looking for injustice where it is not intended,” said the coroner.
She was also very critical of how the police officers dealt with Maloney’s mother Marguerita Maloney, saying that they had given her incorrect information and that their actions may have led to the confusion she experienced surrounding her son’s death. (MB)
That was the clear battle-cry from the Rastafarian community yesterday, moments after Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris determined that former Exhibition winner I’Akobi Maloney dies by misadventure last year.
Tension reached fever-pitch in the small courtyard of the Coroner’s Court on Roebuck Street at 5 p.m., when grieving mother Marguerita Maloney exited the court, raised her hands on the air, shouted “misadventure”, then crumpled to the ground before berating a number of police officers regarding their conduct when I’Akobi died on June 17 last year at Landlock, St Lucy.
The mother’s cries only fuelled emotions, as I’Akobi’s father David, and his younger brother Mandela, also started to shout at police officers stationed at the court.
“I have pictures of my son’s body, brutalised, manhandled,” she said.
“I call on the ancestors to deal with all the perpetrators… This is only an earth verdict,” she said before collapsing for a second time.
Sergeant targeted
Most of the insults, however, were hurled at Sergeant Wingrove Headley, one of the two officers who were on hand at Landlock, and alleged that I’Akobi suddenly ran away from their custody, and jumped over a cliff, 50 feet to his death.
A stoic Headley stood outside the court for a few minutes while more than 30 Rastafarians shouted accusations at him.
In a corner, the Maloney’s attorney Andrew Pilgrim broke down in tears, then receded to the empty courtroom, as the grieving mother was comforted by supporters.
At the gate of the court, armed members of the Royal Barbados Police Force’s Task Force stood on watch, automatic weapons at the ready in case of trouble. Inside, uniformed cops quickly escorted the coroner to her private office after the verdict, then told the crowd to leave. It was 5:07 p.m.
The Rastafarian members, all decked out in red, helped Marguerita to her feet, but continued to hurl insults, and vowed the movement would continue to seek justice.
“This is not the end. This verdict is not the end. This is just the beginning. This is the straw that broke the camel’s back,” father David screamed, whilst pointing and waving a flag of Ethiopia. (more…)
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…)
TO screams of “Murderer”, “You kill my son”, “Dis is just de beginning”, was how the Coroner’s verdict of “death by misadventure” was greeted yesterday by Marguerita Maloney, mother of I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney, and other relatives and friends.
It was minutes before 5 o’clock when Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris delivered her verdict at the Coroner’s Court, Roebuck Street, St Michael, packed with Maloney’s relatives and friends including his mother and brother, Mandela.
After the Coroner left the courtroom and returned to her chambers, Maloney’s mother and others re-joined the Rastafarian brethren in the courtyard which included his father, David.
Dozens had earlier lined the courtyard but had to remain outside during the verdict for lack of space.
Pointing and calling names of the two officers who were first on the scene at Landlock, St Lucy, where the 23-year-old chemical engineer died on June 17, 2008, Marguerita told Sergeant Wingrove Headley and Police Constable Wendell Walkes… “De inquest end, but dis is just de beginning. De Rasta brethren gine get you.” (more…)
Marguerita Maloney, mother of I'Akobi Maloney, being held up by supporters as she mourns the verdict of the inquest into her son's death. (Pictures by Donnay Deane)
I’AKOBI MALONEY’S death was a misadventure.
That was the verdict arrived at by coroner Faith Marshall-Harris at 5 p.m. this afternoon in the controversial case of the 23 year-old Rastafarian. a former Barbados Exhibitioner who allegedly jumped off a 50 ft cliff at the secluded land Lock, St Lucy, last July 17, while being escorted to the station by two police officers.
Ruling out an open verdict and death by suicide, the Magistrate surmised that Maloney may have felt some form of harassment from the police officers, especially when they requested that he accompany them to the station and that “he made a sudden dash for freedom”.
The verdict caused an uproar among family and supporters of the Maloney family who gathered in the courtyard.
I’Akobi’s grieving mother, Marguerita Maloney exited the court, raised her hands in the air, shouted “misadventure” then crumpled to the ground before berating a number of police officers regarding their conduct when I’Akobi died on June 17 last year at Landlock, St. Lucy.
The mother’s cries only fueled emotions, as I’Akobi’s father David, and his young brother Mandela, also started to shout at police officers stationed at the court.
Only days before the coroner returns her verdict into the unnatural death of 23 year old Chemical Engineer I’Akobi Maloney, representatives of the Justice Committee are questioning the lack of attention given to a petition that was submitted to the Hon Prime Minister David Thompson and the Attorney General Fruendel Stuart.
The petition, submitted prior to the start of the actual inquest in November of 2008, was signed by 5200 Barbadians and called for a private and independent team of investigators to fully examine all of the evidence in the untimely death of the Barbados Exhibition winner. It was hoped that a team or approach in that manner would have the appropriate transparency necessary to adequately rule out any foul play.
From the many calls, letters to the media, and general public conversations it is very clear that there have been a number of questions consistently raised about the case, including some about the status and subsequent impact of the petition.
Ayesha Delpeche, member of the Justice Committee, voiced concern over the lack of communication surrounding the petition.
“Throughout the entire inquest, we have received no reply from either the Prime Minister or the Attorney General. The case of the tragic loss of I’Akobi Maloney has been in the media countless times, brought up in Parliament, and has gained the attention of law schools overseas, yet the petition has not been addressed at all.” (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.
