The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE parents of a man unlawfully killed by police in 2016 say their quest for justice won’t be complete until the officer responsible for their son's death is criminally prosecuted.

Constable Kendrick Brown shot Osworth Rolle, 22, on November 30, 2016. Jurors ruled on Tuesday that the killing was unjustified.

Rolle’s parents, Kendal Rolle, 57, and Christina Rolle, 51, are likely to pursue a civil suit against the government, their lawyer says, but the family is primarily focused on whether Director of Public Prosecutions Garvin Gaskin brings criminal charges against Officer Brown.

“I want the officer to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Mr Rolle said yesterday, moments after expressing joy and relief that his son was "vindicated."

“If this man takes my son’s life unlawfully. . .why should he just be able to say he was in the line of duty and should not be held accountable for what happened?”

Officer Brown remains on active duty –– much to Mr Rolle’s displeasure. Officers are not placed on modified duty in cases of police-involved shootings, unlike in some jurisdictions. This can put the Royal Bahamas Police Force in an uncomfortable predicament: last year one officer received two unlawful killing rulings stemming from shooting incidents that occurred two months apart.

“In a lot of situations,” Mr Rolle said, “you hear about officers being put on leave or when politics is involved people are sent on leave. If that could happen, why should this man be allowed to remain on duty, perhaps carrying a gun? This is one of the things that has me angry. I’m angry with a system that allows this man to go about carrying out his duties like nothing happened.”

Osworth Rolle was the fourth of his parents’ five sons and he was their most affectionate child, Mrs Rolle said. The last conversation she had with him was about food. The morning he died, he wanted a hot plate of white rice and mackerel for breakfast and a grape-flavoured soda, she said. The plan was that he would leave home after eating and return at midday to accompany her to the bank to deposit some money. Around midday his body was delivered to the morgue instead. He died about five minutes away from his home on Alexandria Boulevard, Nassau Village. By the time his mother reached the scene of the incident, his body had already been removed. She said she overheard an officer telling bystanders a “prolific offender” long sought by police had been killed. Her son, she said yesterday, did not have a criminal record.

“The picture that was painted is not the character of him and I really wanted justice because I wasn’t satisfied with what they were saying about him,” she said.

Police were targeting Nathaniel Miller, who they wanted to question in connection to open investigations, when they shot Rolle. Officers alleged he pointed a gun in their direction during a chase on foot. They said they recovered a loaded gun from the scene, but Romona Farquharson Seymour, the lawyer for the family, said the gun was never tested for fingerprints.

Officer Brown's lawyer, Bjorn Ferguson, is determining whether he will appeal the ruling. Once rare, unlawful killing rulings against police have become more frequent and Mr Ferguson believes rising anti-police sentiments because of high-profile allegations of police misconduct have contributed to this.

“The evidence as it stands in my humble opinion is that the officer acted lawfully and exercised his lawful discretion in firing his weapon that day," he said, "but as of late there have been a lot of issues that have surfaced in relation to the police and I think that contributed to the verdict. The jury is only supposed to consider the evidence before the court, but at the end of the day we live in this society and social media is available to everybody.”

Mr Ferguson believes jurors were uncomfortable with the fact that police investigate police shootings, a point Mrs Farquharson Seymour stressed during the inquest.

“I think the time has come when we may have to consider this whole notion of police investigating the police,” Mr Ferguson said. “We have to look at appointing independent parties to oversee matters involving police shootings. Other jurisdictions have already moved there. I think the jury had a discomfort with that and unfortunately my client suffered from that discomfort.”

In her summation during the inquest, Coroner Jeanine Weech-Gomez emphasised the limited role her office plays in investigations. "We have no special task force to investigate an officer in a police-involved shooting," she said. "In this jurisdiction, if there is a fatal police shooting, it is the police who will investigate the police."