By PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Staff Reporter
pbailey@tribunemedia.net
JURORS in the Coroner’s Court yesterday heard that a man police killed in 2022 had a fake gun and a makeshift bullet-proof vest.
Police responded to calls of an armed robbery near Hospital Lane on April 9, 2022. They reportedly engaged and shot Walter Johnson after he drew a weapon.
During the inquest into the killing yesterday, an officer from the police armoury said the weapon photographed on the scene was a replica firearm.
When shown photos of the deceased lying face up on the road near Hospital Lane and Meeting Street, Inspector Kristoff Greenslade identified a military green replica Glock pistol.
He said if he encountered the same object, it would be difficult to identify it as fake in low light. He said the officers may have been in fear for their lives when they saw what they believed to be a weapon.
He said it was not reasonable for officers to aim for the hand, adding that they are trained to discharge their weapons as a last resort and to shoot at centre mass.
Forensic pathologist Dr Caryn Sands testified that on July 8, 2022, she performed an autopsy on the deceased’s body.
She said Johnson’s cause of death was a gunshot wound to his head and right thigh.
She said the wounds to the head of the deceased injured his brain and that the skin was missing where his skull was fractured.
She said given the months the deceased’s body spent in cold storage, his skin had started to slip off. She said this explained the mould spots on his torso in photos of his autopsy.
Dr Sands said the deceased was wearing blue pants and a green makeshift bullet-proof vest with flat metal plates on both sides in the cushions.
She said one of these plates was a blue one-way street sign and the other a dark metal plate.
Acting Coroner Kara Turnquest Deveaux presided over the inquest. Angelo Whitfield marshalled the evidence.
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