DPP to decide on cop’s fate today

DIRECTOR of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Geoffrey Henderson is expected to make a decision today on whether a police constable would face criminal charges in connection with the death of Shaun McLeod. Yesterday, the 25-year-old policeman, who has less than three years service, was placed before an identification parade at the Marabella Police Station, following which, Southern Homicide Bureau officers sent the case file to the acting Commissioner of Police (CoP) Everald Snaggs. The DPP is expected to receive the file this morning. Sources told Newsday that the officer could very well face a manslaughter charge.

McLeod, 23, died within half-an-hour after he was arrested by Southern Division police for obscene language, on September 5. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the San Fernando General Hospital. Eyewitnesses told senior investigators that McLeod, father of a two-month-old baby boy, of South Oropouche, was beaten by four officers who had tried to handcuff him on a lamp-post on Library Corner, San Fernando.