Suicide by jersey?

WE EXPECT that the Police authorities will conduct a thorough investigation into the death of 25-year-old Gerard Lewis who is reported to have committed suicide in a cell at the San Juan Police Station on Saturday. The Police story is that Lewis hanged himself with a jersey he was wearing after he was arrested for robbing a taxi-driver and two passengers at gunpoint.

Relatives of the dead man, however, insist that Lewis did not commit suicide. They believe that he was beaten to death. His cousin, Gillian Garroway, claims that Lewis was not a bandit or a car thief. She said he was not a suicidal person and loved his family very much. The last time she saw her cousin alive was on Friday when he visited her and limed with her husband. Also, he was looking forward to seeing his mother who lives in Canada. Garroway also points out that the jersey which the Police claimed Lewis used to hang himself from the roof of the cell did not seem to be stretched. When she viewed Lewis's body at the Forensic Science Centre, Garroway said she saw what appeared to be a mark around his neck.

Now the post mortem which is expected to be conducted today will establish the cause of Lewis's death. But even if it reveals that he died from asphyxiation, there is still the question of how it happened or the need to determine the circumstances surounding his death. This is what we expect an investigation to determine, whether Lewis did in fact take his own life or whether he was the victim of foul play while in Police custody.

Presuming that he was so inclined, it seems questionable, at the very least, that a person of Lewis's build and weight could have hanged himself by using his jersey alone. How did he manage all by himself first to tie such a garment to the ceiling of the cell and then around his neck? What is there at the ceiling of the cell he could have used for such an act? Did his jersey have the length or the strength to accommodate such a hanging? And even if it did, would it not be severely stretched? Garroway said it wasn't. Finally, how could someone hang himself in a police station cell without the officers on duty knowing what was going on?

These are some of the questions which we believe the investigators must ask and find answers for. On the face of it, the account given by officers at the station does not seem quite credible, and the thought that the arrested man might have been beaten or choked to death while in the custody of the police is too troubling not to be thoroughly investigated. This is not the first time that an incident of this nature has occurred. We have had reports of convicted prisoners hanging themselves in their prison cells. We also recall the notorious case of Fitzroy Cadogan who was beaten to death in a cell of the St Joseph Police station many years ago. It was from this killing that the term "body music" — blows administered by the Police which leave little or no external trace — became famous. One officer was arrested and charged for Cadogan's murder, but he was freed on trial.

It was the agitation of the Press, insisting on an investigation into Cadogan's death, that prevented a cover-up and forced the authorities to take action. We have no idea of the circumstances surrounding the death of Gerard Lewis, except what the Police reports claim. However, there are too many questions about the story of his hanging not to require a full investiation into the way he died.