The Tribune

By PAVEL BAILEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

pbailey@tribunemedia.net

THE leader of the police squadron that conducted a fatal raid at a Blair Estates mansion in 2019 testified that officers were executing a search warrant for Tony Smith as the Coroner’s Court inquest continued yesterday.

He said Smith, one of the three men killed in the incident, was a wanted murder suspect.

Police killed Tony Jamal “Foolish” Penn Smith, Valentino “T-Boy” Pratt and Trevor “Coopz” Cooper on Commonwealth Avenue in the early morning of May 17, 2019. 

Chief Superintendent Raynard Woods said that he was the leader of Flying Squad on the night they attempted to apprehend wanted fugitives. 

He said after assembling a team of police officers and marines at CDU, they made their way to the mansion shortly after 2am.

He said upon reaching the residence, the officers broke into two teams with one flanking left to the garage and the other heading to the front door with Superintendent Woods in the lead.

He said a third team maintained the perimeter outside the property gate. 

Superintendent Woods said while climbing the stairs to the front door, he heard police identify themselves from the garage.

He said shortly after, he heard a dog bark, followed by gunfire from that direction. 

He said when officers hammered on the front door, he heard one say, “Police, search warrant, open the door.” He said it was at this point he saw Jamal Penn, the man for whom there was a warrant for his arrest, peeking at police from an upstairs window.

He said police entered the residence after a woman accompanied by two boys opened the front door. He said after securing the civilians, the officers splintered into another two subgroups, with one team proceeding left up the staircase and another continuing their search downstairs with Superintendent Woods in tow. 

He said the house was in darkness as officers breached the foyer.

He added that while searching the dining room, he heard an officer upstairs shout “gun”. 

He said he then heard Corporal Curtis, who led the team upstairs, say: “Put down the child, put down the gun and come downstairs.”

After the command was repeated, he recalled two gunshots going off in quick succession and ran toward the gunfight.

At a bedroom doorway on the second floor, he found the body of Penn Smith lying on the floor shirtless and in boxers. Nearby, he claimed there was a gun lying in a pool of blood.

He said when he asked Corporal Curtis what happened, the officer said Smith refused to comply with his orders and fired at police, resulting in them returning fire.

He said the operation was over in under 20 minutes. 

He said while surveying the scene in the aftermath of the shootings, he saw a bullet-riddled silver coloured Nissan Note in the garage.

He said he saw the body of Trevor Cooper in the front seat of the car with a gun in the backseat area.

In a room next to the garage, he saw the body of Valentino Pratt on the ground with a gun in his left hand.

All three men were pronounced dead at the scene. Superintendent Woods handed over the scene to initial investigator Corporal Desmond Rolle.

K Melvin Munroe, an attorney for the 15 officers who are the subject of this inquest, produced a search warrant in the name of Jamal Penn, which Leyvon Miller signed. Superintendent Woods confirmed that this was the warrant he acted on during the raid.

A wanted poster of Smith was also shown in court for crimes, including those of drugs and firearms.

Superintendent Woods said that the dead men were wanted for several incidents, including shootings. However, he could not say if any of the victims in those alleged matters had perished.

During this cross-examination, the officer described the results of the raid as “fruitful”. He also said that it was his first encounter with Smith and that he did not witness any of the shootings directly.

 He defended the large size of the raid team. He said a team of only two officers would have produced a bad result, given the number of firearms they found on the property.

 Superintendent Woods told Ciji Smith-Curry, an attorney for the estates of the dead men, that he could not recall the exact number of officers in the raid.

 Mrs Smith-Curry indicated that nowhere in his report did he say he heard Corporal Curtis command Smith to put a gun down. He responded that he did not write it in his report, nor did he check the bodies for a pulse.

 Mrs Smith-Curry said his oral report contradicts his written one because it claimed the gun was found near Pratt’s body and not in his hand. Superintendent Woods responded that the gun was resting above the closed fingers of Pratt’s left hand. Pratt’s mother previously testified that her son was right-handed.

 Superintendent Woods told Romona Farquharson Seymour, another lawyer for the estates, that officers did not fire when they first entered the gate. However, he could not explain why a bullet casing was photographed near that same gate. He agreed that it could have been ammo from his squad.

 He agreed with acting Coroner Kara Turnquest Deveaux’s suggestion that the bullet could have rolled down the hill to where investigators found it.

 He could not say who shot Smith. While he maintained that both sides fired shots, he said officers’ safety was his paramount concern when he questioned them.

 He said he did not see a child upstairs despite hearing officers order Smith to put one down.

 Mrs Farquharson Seymour suggested that the search warrant produced in court was issued in 2018. He said he couldn’t speak to this. 

 The lawyer further suggested that the wanted poster shown in court wasn’t brought to him before this investigation. He responded that he was told the dead men had drugs and firearms.

 He accepted that he did not mention drugs being found on the premises in his report.

 He said he saw nothing strange about how the gun was found in Pratt’s hand despite Mrs Farquharson Seymour saying it looked like it was placed there.

 He recalled Smith being on his back when he first got upstairs, though crime scene photos showed him lying face down.

Superintendent Woods said there might have been security footage of the incident. He disagreed with the suggestion that the officers in his operation wore masks, claiming they went barefaced.

At this point during the cross-examination, Mrs Farquharson Seymour noted that officers in the court were chuckling in their seats despite the severity of the matter under investigation. 

Superintendent Woods disagreed with her suggestion that he was dishonest in his testimony and lying to protect his officers.

He said there was no warrant or wanted poster for Trevor Cooper.

When asked by Ryzard Humes, the last attorney for the estates, why the operation didn’t focus solely on Smith once they’d ascertained his position, he replied that gunfire occurred in the garage before Smith was seen. He said it was possible Smith only went to the window in response to gunfire.

Defense Force Petty Officer Doyle Burrows testified that he and Marines Forbes, Pinder and Rolle participated in the operation.

He said he was stationed on perimeter duty outside the mansion on Eastern Road when he heard gunfire. He said three or four officers were with him at the time.

He said he provided security outside the mansion’s gate after the area was cordoned off and allowed EMS onto the scene.

The marine could not tell Mrs Farquharson Seymour how many cars went to the operation or who was in the jeep with him. He also could not remember which officers secured the perimeter with him.

The lawyer questioned why he was in charge of maintaining the perimeter when he couldn’t remember such details. 

The coroner then told officers in court to check their posture as giggles again broke out during Mrs Seymour’s cross-examination.

Petty Officer Burrows said he may have written his own report of the incident but couldn’t say so definitively because it was almost five years since the incident.