KINGSTON, Jamaica – A court has ordered that two of the seven police officers arrested for the beating and shooting death of Ian Lloyd last week be charged by next Tuesday or released.Resident Magistrate for St Ann, Carolyn Tie, made the ruling following a writ of habeas corpus filed by Oswest Senior-Smith, the attorney representing the two policemen..The incident last week sparked national outrage when a video was aired on local television showing Lloyd, 27, being beaten and shot to death by the police officers.However, none of the policemen, including a senior crime investigator, has been criminally charged for their role in the incident.Assistant Commissioner of Police Les Green, who has assumed the role of lead investigator in the case, was due to meet with Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Paula Llewellyn to discuss the status of the investigation.Green asked the court not to force the hands of the DPP into making a ruling in the matter. He said the DPP needed adequate time to peruse about 20 statements which had so far been collected from police and civilian witnesses.Green said investigators were hoping to collect more than 100 statements from residents who witnessed the incident, including the citizen who videotaped it and released the footage to the media.Meanwhile, a post-mortem has revealed that Lloyd’s death was as a result of a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
(CMC)
