By PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Staff Reporter
pbailey@tribunemedia.net
A PATHOLOGIST testified that 18-year-old Kwondrick Lowe died from gunshot injuries to his head and torso last year as the inquest into the police-involved killing continued yesterday.
Dr Caryn Sands, a pathologist at the Princess Margaret Hospital, testified that she performed an autopsy on Lowe on February 1, 2023.
She determined that the deceased’s cause of death was gunshot wounds to the head, torso and left thigh.
She said the deceased had four gunshot wounds across his body. She said one to his head went through his brain and neck and would have been rapidly fatal.
She said one of two gunshot wounds that went through his torso penetrated one of his lungs, resulting in blood filling that organ.
In addition to recovering a bullet from Lowe’s body, Dr Sands said she observed an abrasion to the deceased’s left flank and his thigh.
She said there was no evidence of close-range discharge on his body.
A photo of the man’s body in the morgue showed his face covered in blood with a gunshot wound near his cheek. His eyes were still open, but glazed over.
Inspector Marcian Frazier, the senior officer on January 21, 2023, the night of the shooting, testified that he, Constable Nicholas and Constable Anderson –– the subject of this inquest –– were on patrol in Kemp Road as part of Operation Ceasefire.
He said he and the other officers went to Liam’s bar because they knew it was a popular hangout for suspected criminals.
He said while there, PC Anderson alerted him that he saw the deceased run away from the rear of a bar in a blue hoodie with a gun.
He said the three officers pursued the man in a marked police vehicle before parking on Edward Avenue and continuing their search on foot.
He recalled hearing PC Anderson say, “Police, get down,” after he passed two vans near Mil’s Chinese Restaurant and Bar on Hillbrook Close. He said he then heard PC Nicholas shout, “Gun Andy, gun gun,” causing him to immediately turn around towards the action and draw his weapon.
He said PC Anderson shot the deceased five times. He said he did not fire because the threat had been dealt with before he was in range.
He said that in the aftermath of the shooting, officers found the gun the deceased allegedly had in his hand in a car lot west of the restaurant.
Under cross-examination from Keod Smith, the attorney for the deceased’s estate, Inspector Frazier confirmed that Mil’s Bar was closed at the time of the incident.
Detective Inspector Henrington Curry, a firearm examiner at the police forensic lab, said that he received a 5.56 black Colt M4 Carbine Rifle used by PC Anderson and 23 unfired rounds of ammunition on Tuesday.
He said he also received a black Beretta 9mm Luger calibre pistol with defaced serial numbers; this is the gun police say the deceased had on the night of his death.
He also analysed a fired bullet recovered from the deceased’s body.
According to Inspector Curry’s tests, both weapons were found capable of firing.
When questioned by K Melvin Munroe, the attorney for the officer, Inspector Curry said the 9mm gun could have inflicted injury or death if used and that the bullets submitted were found with the gun.
However, when asked by Mr Smith, the officer said none of the bullets that came with the gun allegedly held by the deceased were fired that night.
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