Breakthrough in cop’s death

AFTER SEVEN YEARS, police believe they have the killer of one of their own.
According to sources, detectives of the Serious Crime Unit have arrested a Christ Church man in connection with the shooting death of 31-year-old Constable Dexter Yarde, who was gunned down while responding to a burglary in Vauxhall, St James, on August 22, 2004.
Reports indicated the man could be charged with the murder of Yarde, who was shot in the heart with a high-powered Glock pistol.
Yarde, who was also a member of the Serious Crime Unit, was on patrol with another constable, Richard Garrett, looking for a burglar/rapist in the north of the island when they got a report to respond to a burglary at a Las Palmas residence, a villa on the Holetown coastline.
The two officers pursued a man who was hiding under a shrub on the beach when they both came under fire and responded, with Yarde being fatally shot.
A few days later, controversy developed after then Acting Commissioner of Police Bertie Hinds announced that the young constable had died from a police bullet.
However, four years later, Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris ruled that Yarde did not die from friendly fire. (TS)