Families hold memorial for Crawle victims
KARYL WALKER, Crime/court co-ordinator walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com
Saturday, May 10, 2008
RESIDENTS of the rustic farming district of Crawle in Clarendon say they are determined to keep the memories of Lewena Thompson, Angela Richards, Kirk Gordon and Matthew James alive.
The four were fatally shot by police during a raid by the now-disbanded Crime Management Unit on a house in the district five years ago, and on Wednesday the residents held their annual memorial to remember the lives of the Crawle four.
The unit was led by sidelined glamour cop, Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams, who still draws the ire of the Crawle residents.
"We are going to make sure this cowardly act will never be forgotten and it will ring on Adams' conscience for the rest of his life," Vinton 'Jah T' James, a rastafarian elder of the community told the Observer.
Adams said he and his men had been drawn to the area after receiving reports that a wanted man, Bashington 'Chen Chen' Douglas and Richards were operating a large extortion racket on the nearby Ausjam Gold Mine and other businesses in the parish and were harbouring gunmen in the community. The cops say they were shot when they attempted to enter the premises and returned the fire killing the four persons.
Douglas was not apprehended during the operation.
The residents refuted the police version of the incident and led by member of parliament Pearnel Charles, called for an investigation into the killings.
The controversial incident prompted the then police commissioner, Francis Forbes, to seek assistance from Scotland Yard, The Canadian Royal Mounted police and the FBI to probe the shootings.
Weeks later the director of public prosecutions ruled that Adams and six of his men - Devon Bernard; Latrid Gordon; Roderick Collier; Shane Lyons; and Patrick Coke - be charged with four counts of manslaughter each. The seven cops were later acquitted by a 12-member jury in the high court.
The verdict has left a bitter taste in the mouths of the grieving residents who point to the evidence offered by an eight-year-old child that she was escorted out of the house before her mother and the three others were shot at close range by the cops, as overwhelming enough to get a conviction.
"The justice system is not fair and I wonder how they could say them not guilty after the little girl testify what she see?" Hilary Rowe, sister of Angela Richards said as she looked on glumly at the house where her sister met her end.
Richards' daughter, Makeda Knibbs, still seemed to be shaken up by her mother's death.
"I can't understand how they could leave so much crime and killing in Kingston and come far into hills to a community as peaceful as this and kill my mother. That is kinda hard to take," a depressed-looking Knibbs said..
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