By PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Staff Reporter
pbailey@tribunemedia.net
A CORONER’s Court jury ruled that police were justified in killing Ishido Saunders, an ex-con who demanded $3,000 to start a new life moments before he was shot on Antigua Street on April 28, 2022.
Saunders’ mother, Ruth Cox, appeared at peace when the finding was disclosed yesterday.
Earlier in the week, she testified that her son was angry while at the Golden Gates Assembly Church the night he was killed, but that she didn’t fear him.
She said her son and a pastor were involved in a discussion about the police. She said her son became angry when she mentioned Andrew Farquharson, a man whose death caused Saunders to spend 12 years in prison. Saunders was reportedly convicted in 2006 and released in 2018.
Ms Cox said her son told her not to embarrass him, became enraged and pulled out a chain with a pocket knife attached. When she saw the weapon, she said she told the deceased she was leaving, only for Saunders to lock the door of the foyer and tell her: “You aren’t going anywhere.”
Bishop Trent Davis, the pastor at the church, testified that Saunders threatened him with a pocket knife on a chain and demanded $3,000. The bishop barricaded himself in his office with his father and his staff.
Eventually, Saunders left the church.
Inspector Arnold Strachan testified that footage showed Saunders pointing a gun and firing bullets in the direction of police officers Corporal Dominique Bain and PC Calvino Jones as they passed in their police car.
Saunders then allegedly ran into the yard of house #20 on Antigua Street, where he stayed for about three minutes, removing his shirt before trying to jump over the wall as the officers returned from another direction.
The officers then shot him, causing him to fall near the wall.
Videos of the incident from two sets of security footage were played in court yesterday. One showed the defendant walking down the street in a peach coluored shirt before brandishing a weapon at police. The other appeared to show a firefight between the officers and the deceased. Neither footage had audio.
The officers appeared relieved after the verdict was read.
Acting Coroner Kara Turnquest-Deveaux presided over the inquest. Bjorn Ferguson represented the two officers. Angelo Whitfield marshalled the evidence.
Mr Ferguson said Corporal Bain is the first woman police officer to kill an assailant in the line of duty.
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