RHON­DOR DOWLAT-ROS­TANT

The au­top­sy in­to the shoot­ing death of PC Clarence Gilkes dur­ing an op­er­a­tion at Rich Plain Road, Diego Mar­tin, on Fri­day, has re­vealed he was shot in the back of his head and an­oth­er bul­let hit his tem­ple.

The au­top­sy was con­duct­ed at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre, St James, late on Mon­day.

Ac­cord­ing to a se­nior po­lice source, the cause of death was the re­sult of in­ter­nal and ex­ter­nal haem­or­rhag­ing con­sis­tent with a gun­shot wound.

Asked if the bul­let was re­cov­ered for fur­ther bal­lis­tic test­ing, the source said he could not say.

Calls made to Act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Mc Don­ald Ja­cob yes­ter­day went unan­swered.

How­ev­er, in an in­ter­view with the TV6 News last night, Ja­cob called on the sus­pect to turn him­self in, say­ing that the au­top­sy re­port now leads the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in an­oth­er di­rec­tion.

He said it was im­por­tant for the sus­pect to be in­ter­viewed so the po­lice could get his side of the sto­ry, adding that there was an arrange­ment dis­cussed with the at­tor­ney rep­re­sent­ing the sus­pect to have him brought in.

On Fri­day af­ter the in­ci­dent, Ja­cob had told re­porters that he re­ceived in­for­ma­tion that Gilkes was shot in the neck from the front, as he sought to dis­miss claims by res­i­dents that the of­fi­cer had been shot by an­oth­er of­fi­cer and not by the sus­pect.

“An of­fi­cer was shot in the neck from the front and you’re talk­ing about friend­ly fire?” Ja­cob had said.

The sus­pect’s at­tor­ney, Criston J Williams, said yes­ter­day that from his un­der­stand­ing, his client “is no longer a want­ed man so the is­sue of sur­ren­der­ing does not arise.”

“It’s an is­sue of as­sist­ing the TTPS with their in­ves­ti­ga­tion and al­so the au­top­sy re­port is now ex­cul­pa­to­ry ev­i­dence,” Williams said.

Williams al­so sug­gest­ed that the act­ing CoP should apol­o­gise to his client.

“He came out say­ing you touch one, you touch all but now the sci­en­tif­ic ev­i­dence has proven dif­fer­ent­ly, he ought to apol­o­gise.”

Since the in­ci­dent, scores of res­i­dents have claimed they were will­ing to co­op­er­ate with the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA) in an in­de­pen­dent in­ves­ti­ga­tion. The PCA has reached out to some res­i­dents seek­ing their in­put in an in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

When con­tact­ed last evening about the au­top­sy re­port and what it means for the PCA’s in­ves­ti­ga­tion, PCA Di­rec­tor David West on­ly said, “It’s a po­lice-in­volved shoot­ing.”

On so­cial me­dia yes­ter­day, the sus­pect’s moth­er, Kadaf­fi Rom­ney, post­ed, “The truth is out now...I sim­ply want to say thank you to the ones that reached out to me over the last five days, those who checked in to see how I was hold­ing up, who did not dis­tance them­selves while wait­ing for the out­come. The ones who was not judge, ju­ry and ex­e­cu­tion­er from the get go ... and last but not least, the com­plete strangers that sent me prayers and best wish­es for my son and my­self this is a great ex­am­ple of why my cir­cle of re­al ‘friends’ is pol­ka dot sized.”

Ini­tial po­lice re­ports in­di­cat­ed that po­lice of­fi­cers were pur­su­ing men who were said to be in pos­ses­sion of high-pow­ered weapons. As the were about to go up some stairs, the men re­port­ed­ly shot at them, dur­ing which time PC Gilkes was shot dead.