Shot at close range

[MdmeX]

Shot at close range

Published: Thursday | March 29, 2012 Comments 0

• INDECOM to ramp up probe in wake of autopsy findings

Livern Barrett, Gleaner Writer

The Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) says a bombshell autopsy report on the body of Dianne Gordon, the 45-year-old Cassava Piece resident killed by the police two weeks ago, has added some urgency to its probe.

The autopsy, which was conducted last Wednesday by the government's chief forensic pathologist, Dr Dinesh Rao, revealed that Gordon's body had marks which "confirm the shots were fired from close range".

INDECOM's Director of Complaints Nigel Morgan confirmed last night that a copy of the report was with his office, but declined to discuss it, explaining that the investigation was still ongoing.

Asked if the report changes the focus of the probe, Morgan said: "What it does now is place a little more urgency on some of the things that we have to do."
The police, in their report to INDECOM, claimed Gordon was killed in a shoot-out with gunmen in the St Andrew community on March 17.

Police report challenged
According to the police report, the shooting started after a police team that went into Cassava Piece in search of gunmen was "greeted by gunfire when they entered the community".

Residents, however, disputed this account, charging that Gordon was returning home from a wake when the police entered the community and began firing indiscriminately.

Giving his 'summary of opinion' as to the cause of death, Rao wrote that Gordon was shot nine times, three of which "were perforating wounds".

The report said Gordon, a married mother of two daughters, died "instantaneously" after one of the bullets struck her in the head.

"Injury Nos. 2 and 3 showed blackening, burning and tattooing indicating the shot (was) fired from a close range within 50cm from the muscle end," Rao wrote.

Added Rao: "All shots, except injury Nos. 4, 6, 9, and 2 are most likely sustained when the deceased was in a standing position."

He said the "pattern and severity" of the injuries indicated the use of "high-powered rifled firearm" and said this was confirmed by fragments that were retrieved at the scene.

Rao said Gordon also had two lacerated wounds on the right forearm, which were due to fragment impact injuries.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com

[MdmeX]

Let us see how the LIAD Police dem going to spin this now

[Gamma]

she was shot by the gunmen?

[Bricktop]

...& they used the "grizzly" from TG...woieeeeeee

[1of1]

Asked if the report changes the focus of the probe, Morgan said: "What it does now is place a little more urgency on some of the things that we have to do."

why not full urgency at all times

[Mosiah]

How long ago were the 7 Braeton boys murdered by our police? It was 11 years ago. What have we learnt in 11 years?

Our police still kill people and tell us it was a shootout. No shootout of any consequence was ever established to have occurred at Braeton. You would be hard-pressed to establish any shootout in these recent killings by our security forces. Just as you would be hard-pressed to establish that Trayvon had broken his murderer's nose and slammed his head into the pavement several times.

At the time of the Braeton 7, many on this forum said the boys were indeed criminals and they deserved their death, shootout or not. But what are we saying about Trayvon Martin? Some here are arguing that, he may not be an angel, but his killing was not justified. Why make the distinction here? Are all teenage victims in Jamaica criminals if the police say they are?

We turned a blind eye to hard autopsy evidence that the boys were shot at close range, maybe just as Dianne Gordon was killed.

The autopsy of the stated 20-years-old slim black male revealed evidence of gun shot wound injury consisting of four perforating gun shot lesion to the head. The gun shot lesions to the head came from the left side of the head with exit wounds on the right side of the head.
All gun shot lesions were single projectile lesions. Gun shot lesion A and B were contact wounds. Gun shot lesion C and D were distant wounds, meaning that the gun shot came from a distance larger than the length of the barrel of the weapon. The calibre of the weapon cannot be determined by the diameter of the entrance wounds, but depends on an examination of the recovered projectile fragment.
There was evidence of blunt trauma to the head, chest, back, left arm and left leg. Lesion 4, 5 and 6 could very well be a result of fist punches. The other lesions are uncharacteristic, and could have resulted from tumbling around, hitting objects in the surroundings or the floor.
No signs of disease were found, but the examination of the internal organs was incomplete.
Fingerprints were taken. No samples were taken for alcohol, toxicology or microscopic investigation. No hand swaps for powder staining were taken. No photos were taken.
Cause of death: multiple gunshots wounds to the head

- AI Autopsy Report for Andre Virgo, age 20 years

We ignored the fact that many were shot several times. And all of this through the concrete walls of that Portmore residence and the aluminum windows that showed bullets passing in only one direction only, from outside to inside.

Some are even questioning the purity of the Immaculate Conception student who was on the way to a party, being driven by strange men. Did she deserve to die just because, maybe, some of the occupants in the car were "known criminals"? I guess just like the Braeton 7, some of those youngsters were innocent, but they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Too bad!

What about the 2 senior citizens killed in Denham Town, were they also criminals under the cover, deserving of death? And now Dianne Gordon, was she really coming from a wake or was she coming in from a mission, as a lookout for dangerous shottas?

Some of us were moved enough to attend marches in Florida, protesting Trayvon's murder. How many of us did the same for the Braeton 7? How many of us would have attended the one earlier this week?

I remember that protest for the Braeton 7. I had just come back from living in the US, not even 4 months good. While in NY, I had got some practice at protest marches as I can remember attending one in college when they raised fees and another one for Amadou Diallo, murdered by New York's finest as he stood in a doorway armed with a cell phone. During those years I protested in writing against our own murderous police and witnessed the founding of Jamaicans for Justice. I was accused by Balla, Ohene and Courtney (God bless his soul), the resident Forum comrades, of selling out to uptown white Jamaicans, whose only real purpose was to bring down the PNP government. To this day some do believe this crap. And yes, as I stood at the intersection of Oxford Road and Old Hope Road handing out some flyers, I was subjected to verbal abuse by many motorists and pedestrians. And I wondered why it was that these uptown people tek up dis pon dem 'ead.

I now wonder if any of those persons who were quick to trace me that day, I wonder if they are all alive. Was any of them cut down by a policeman's bullet in those 11 years since? Maybe they were the victims of "real" criminals. Did any one of them lose a loved one to a marauding, swashbuckling policeman, or a criminal? Do they realise that it really does not matter who did the killing? Do they realise that a police force that can be trusted is the key to getting the "real" criminals!?!?

Many of us thought that Braeton would have brought about real changes in Jamaica, that it was a watershed event, a turning point. I think we are in for a few more turning points before we can understand that criminals are criminals. Matters not if they are paid by the state or by the don.

God bless Carolyn Gomes and Jamaicans for Justice!

[Willi]

Many?

Come on, I recall only one. My fren Mr BUD! LoL

[Mosiah]

yes, i remember 'many".

[Willi]

Call name den nuh...LoL

[Mosiah]

Probably easier to call names of those who were against the murder of the youths.

Willi, yuh nuh memba?! We were finding all sorts of reasons why di bwoy dem fi dead. Even our journalists were supportive of the murderous cops.

We believed the cops story that one of the guns found one the boys was the one that killed some teacher in Above Rocks a week before. This in mere hours after the carnage our finest could make such a statement, sans a ballistic report! We found every reason to tell ourselves that the boys were guilty and deserved death. And we called for Renato Adams to be crowned king of Jamaica. From then on, he could do little wrong.

[Muadib]

Solution.. you have to be white or at minimum a browning to be a field officer in the JCF..

Is den yuh woulda si Marching.. JFJ membership woulda Tun Up !

[MdmeX]

Probably easier to call names of those who were against the murder of the youths.

Willi, yuh nuh memba?! We were finding all sorts of reasons why di bwoy dem fi dead. Even our journalists were supportive of the murderous cops.

We believed the cops story that one of the guns found one the boys was the one that killed some teacher in Above Rocks a week before. This in mere hours after the carnage our finest could make such a statement, sans a ballistic report! We found every reason to tell ourselves that the boys were guilty and deserved death. And we called for Renato Adams to be crowned king of Jamaica. From then on, he could do little wrong.

Not me! I recall posting this article sometime ago also by D.K. Duncan

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...us/focus1.html


IN THAT HOUSE IN BRAETON

And I have said this to my friends, many of whom are my children who are sitting over there, that I could have been in that house in Braeton. I personally know that, not through some abstract thing, but through practical reality.

I was a Member of Parliament who mix-up with everybody mi neva skin up because every man have a right fi him own destiny. And I can envisage myself in the 1970s or 1960s when I was in the Black Power movement, sitting down in a room with some set of youths saying 'Listen, we have to reason out how dis ting go, what we can do wid wi life.'

Because this thing don't work through no public meeting and no whole heap a thing, we have sit down and reason, you have to reason, it's one on one, it's likkle small groups - that's where you get to the minds and to challenge the youth and thing of this country.

You cyaan just come down and spend half an hour and say 'I was there, and they look poor.' So I could have been there reasoning with them and Mr. Adams could have walked in there and sey, 'See it deh, see the b_ _ _ h deh', and just shot wi! That's exactly how it would go, that's exactly how it would have gone. And I want to put it as starkly as possible, because I want you to know that you face 'a clear and present danger.'

And I was very disappointed when we went down to the funeral that Sunday afternoon, and saw the chairs, set out in anticipation of civil society, empty. I don't want to interpret Edward Seaga, but I felt like how I think he felt, when a question was put to him on the Breakfast Club and he answered by saying, 'My heart tells one thing, but my head tells me another.' Nutten nuh lef fi sey afta dat.
I don't even want him explain it to me - don't you know when you're fed up and yuh feel like sey 'What in the name of God, why people cyaan see that something is wrong? What is it going to take for people to know that something is wrong?'

[Willi]

WE????

Mi know better dan dat!

All now the dread wid di Japanese wife case bun mi!

Di man pleaded for help online fi MONTHS and went to di High Command and dem still kill him and beat up him pregnant wife.

Tek sleep and mark death...

[Mosiah]

Heh heh! True!

[Plush]

Mosiah, I agree some of these police are wicked and evil but you won't find me shedding any tears for those Braeton boys. Innocent victims like Diane Gordon, that's who I cry out for..Those Braeton boys killed many, ruthlessly...Im not sure how they met their demise but I can live with closing the book on them.