Barbados Bar wants overseas sleuths to probe police killings

(Barbados Nation) The Barbados Bar Association is throwing its full weight behind a recent call made by attorney at law and political activist David Comissiong for foreign investigators to be brought in to probe all police killings.

President Andrew Pilgrim said yesterday such a move would augur well for transparency and eliminate doubts in relation to the present system “where the accused were investigating themselves”.

Comissiong is the legal representative of the family of Jamar Andre Maynard, who lost his life to a police bullet on the night of April 3. Maynard, 27, of Denton Road, Grazettes, St Michael, was shot in the left arm by one of two police detectives who were on foot patrol in Bridgetown when the incident occurred. Maynard died the next morning.

Three weeks ago, Comissiong wrote Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin, as well as the Director of Public Prosecutions Charles Leacock, QC, urging the use of overseas investigators as part of a “rigorous and comprehensive” inquiry into Maynard’s death.