He fired the shot that killed an innocent bystander. But according to police constable Fabian Audain, he doesn’t even remember his gun going off.
That was the evidence given earlier today in the Coroner’s Court in Roebuck Street, on the first day of the inquest into the death of Hugh Springer in the Nursery Drive bus terminal on June 9, last year.
During his evidence-in-chief, Audain said he was struggling with a man when he heard a loud explosion and saw Springer, who was two feet away from him, fall to the ground. Audain said he turned to his partner, Special Constable, Julian Rock and asked him if he had just fired his gun, but Rock said “no”.
According to the witness, Springer, had just disembarked a route taxi vehicle, when he was fatally shot in the head.
Earlier in his evidence, Constable Audain testified that on June 9 he and his partner, Special Constable, Julian Rock, went to the Nursery Drive Terminal just after 7 p.m after receiving transmission from Operations Control that there was a disturbance there involving shooting and fighting.
Audain said he and Rock were each in possession of a glock pistol and 30 rounds of ammuition, and they were travelling in the same vehicle. He said Sergeant Charles Cumberbatch, their team leader in the anti-crime unit, was in another vehicle with Constables Roach and Callender.
The constable said when he arrived on the scene, he started to walk towards the terminal when he saw two men running towards him. One of them he recognised as alias “Hypa A” and he noticed that his face was covered with blood. He said that man told him: “The men with the weapons who did this to me down there”. He instructed the two men to go by the police vehicle and wait.
When asked by the coroner if the glock could be discharged accidentally, Police firearms expert, Inspector Graham Husbands stated ”Anything accidental would be on the part of the person using the weapon.”He added that the glock would take five-and-a-half pounds of pressure to discharge as opposed to most other firearms which only needed about three-and-a-half. (MB)
See the full story in tomorrow’s DAILY NATION.
