Who killed Shaun McLeod?

ACTING Commissisoner Everald Snaggs is proving to be the kind of no-nonsense Police Chief that the country needs. Proof of this can be seen in his prompt reaction to the mysterious killing of 23-year-old Shaun McLeod who died in police custody on Friday night shortly after he was arrested for using obscene language. Mr Snaggs’ quick action demonstrates his concern over such an incident and gives us assurance that the killing will be thoroughly investigated.

The CoP has ordered reports from four corporals and one constable involved in McLeod’s arrest. He has also assigned a homicide detective to investigate the killing of the arrested man. Mr Snaggs’ rapid response to this questionable incident will help to build public confidence in the Police Service since he is treating it with the urgency it deserves and, at the same time, sending a message that there would be no cover up about the police treatment of arrested persons. How did Shaun McLeod die? An autopsy conducted by pathologist Hughvon DesVignes has revealed that he died from head injuries. There seems no escaping the fact, then, that McLeod was beaten to death after he was arrested in San Fernando by a team of police officers. According to the story given by Seon Andrews to McLeod’s common-law wife Mackiba Cowan, he and McLeod were walking to the Royal Castle outlet in San Fernando when policemen alighted from a van and arrested McLeod for using obscene language. They then attempted to handcuff McLeod to a nearby post. When Cowan heard of her husband’s arrest, she went to San Fernando where, at the Library Corner, one eye witness told her, “They really beat that man and carried him down.” Cowan got to the police station around 10.10 pm and was told that her husband was taken to the hospital after he had collapsed in his cell.

The distraught woman then rushed to the San Fernando General Hospital only to be told at the Accident and Emergency Department that McLeod was dead when the Police brought him in at 9.30 pm. This scenario is a most disturbing one. How did McLeod sustain such fatal blows to his head while in police custody? He may have been drinking and he may well have been using obscene language. But is that reason for him to be beaten to death? Could not a team of policemen apprehend one apparently inebriated man without the apparent use of such violence. Mr Snaggs, we expect, will determine the truth about this episode and take the necessary action. We need hardly emphasise that acts of police brutality cannot be tolerated, even when an arrested person becomes unruly. We do not expect the police to handle hardened criminals with kid gloves, but we do not expect either that someone arrested for a minor offence should then meet his death as violently as McLeod did. Also, we need hardly remind Mr Snaggs of the several cases of prisoners being killed while in Police custody, including the notorious one of Abdul Kareem who was stabbed to death in St James in 1985 while being escorted to the station. And there is the most recent case of Anton Cooper who was killed in a Golden Grove prison cell two years ago. Mr Snaggs must get at the truth and let justice be done.