By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

A MAN was shot dead by police in western New Providence yesterday morning, the first fatal police-involved shooting of the year.

Police said they received reports that a man was acting suspiciously in the Cable Beach area after 1.30am.

Upon arrival on the scene, officers allegedly saw a man brandishing a firearm who later fired shots in their direction.

The officers returned fire, killing him.

“During the exchange of gunshots, one of the officers sustained a gunshot injury to his upper body and was transported to the hospital by the emergency services personnel, where he remains in stable condition,” the police said.

A firearm and an extra magazine were reportedly recovered at the scene.

The incident comes as police face mixed results in the Coroner’s Courts over killings.

Jurors returned two manslaughter findings concerning police-involved killings this year and three last year.

Yesterday, National Security Minister Wayne Munroe questioned how jurors who returned negative findings reached the conclusions that they did.

“I keep hearing about adverse findings in the Coroner’s Court. I’ve read the Coroner’s Court. I don’t understand how in the statutory context in the Coroner’s Act there can actually be these findings, but I’m not the attorney general, aye,” he said during a briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister. 

“I used to appear in coroner’s matters before I took this chair, representing family of deceased and representing the police. Now us having changed that Coroner’s Act to align with the act that’s in the UK, I have difficulties understanding their verdicts, but as I say, I’m not the attorney general. I’m not the Director of Public Prosecutions.”

“What I do know is that when I practice, I represent the policeman who I assess was involved in duty-related shootings for free and I explained to them that I did that as a private citizen because I depended on them to stand on the line for me and the man that I have standing on the line for me, I don’t want him thinking about does he have legal fees if something happened and he has to go to court.”

Mr Munroe said when confronted by a threat, police make decisions quickly.

“Their judgement is, am I faced with lethal force? Do I have to respond with lethal force and they have to do that in an instant and so that is what concerns me with some of what I hear and it’s just not now that I’m in this chair, but it was before I was in this chair and that is what drove me to represent officers who I did for free.”

Last year, the country recorded 12 police-involved shootings. Five people were killed; seven were injured.