The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

POLICE Commissioner Ellison Greenslade said yesterday he is waiting for the Attorney General to “make a decision” in the Aaron Rolle matter before he makes any comments on what will happen or will not happen to the officers in question.

Last week, Coroner

Jeanine Weech Gomez recommended Aaron Rolle’s case be forwarded to the Police Commissioner to direct the Complaints and Corruption Unit to conduct disciplinary procedures.

The recommendation came after a jury in the coroner’s inquest of Aaron Rolle found that his death was an “unlawful killing.”

Rolle, 20, died at the Southern Police Station on February 8, hours after he was taken into custody for questioning in connection with an armed robbery and escape.

The jury’s verdict came in early May and the Coroner then had to make recommendations to the Attorney General.

In her report for the Attorney General, she recommended ‘the file be reviewed to determine whether or not proceedings should be initiated elsewhere against the interested parties.’

She also asked that ‘the file be forwarded to the Commissioner of Police to direct the Complaints and Corruption Unit to conduct Disciplinary Proceedings against the parties.

Commissioner Greenslade confirmed that the interested parties, Police Constable 2126 Akiel Smith and Police Constable 2648 Carl Smith are on administrative leave. However, he said he will not make any further comments on the matter until Attorney General Allyson Maynard Gibson, makes a move.

“I want to say something, this Commissioner walks a straight line, a very, very straight line and I am accountable to the people of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and on a daily basis I am accountable to those in authority over me, my minister and certainly the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. I do not report to anyone else. I stated the facts as I saw them initially and I said the law should take its course. The Commissioner has no further comment he can make on the matter. It now rests with the honourable Attorney General, who will act when she is ready to make a decision and if she is so minded speak to it, but the Commissioner can not speak to it any more except to say that I am satisfied that I have done my job and done it very, very well and I am going to wait for the honourable Attorney General,” he said.

“They are not on duty, I told the public earlier that they were sent on administrative leave, they remain on administrative leave.  Without prejudicing the officers and the family of the victim you have to listen very careful to what I am not saying, the only thing I have is my creditability and when the public believes I have failed in that regard, I have to take my uniform off. I said before that when our officers are right I stand in support of them, I said that when they run afoul of the law, the law will take its course. I am going to leave the Attorney General to do her job and allow the Bahamian people to judge.”

The Coroner also recommended that Police officers receive training in the proper restraining of suspects at least every two to three years and cameras should be installed at every police station at the entrance to the cell block area and all interviews with suspects be videotaped.