The Tribune

By PAVEL BAILEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A CORONER’S Court jury returned a unanimous finding of justifiable homicide yesterday concerning the police-involved killing of 18-year-old Kwondrick Lowe near Kemp Road in 2023.

This is the second consecutive finding of this nature after jurors returned a similar finding earlier this month in the case of the killings of Tony Jamal “Foolish” Penn Smith, Valentino “T-Boy” Pratt, and Trevor “Coopz” Cooper, Jr, on Commonwealth Avenue. 

The other two inquests this year had findings of homicide by manslaughter.

Kwondrick Lowe was shot and killed outside Mil’s Chinese Restaurant and Bar and Restaurant on Hillbrook Close shortly after 12.36am on January 21, 2023. 

 Police Constable 4041 Anderson, the sole subject of the inquest, was calm as the finding was read yesterday.

 After the finding was revealed, a relative of the deceased who identified herself as Ms Taylor called the result unfair. She also claimed the family saw a third video of the shooting that was not entered as evidence in the case.

 She said for her family, the matter “ain’t over”, even though the finding means the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions will not bring a criminal case against Constable Anderson.

 An officer testified shortly before closing submissions that there were only two videos of the shooting, both from security cameras at Mil’s Bar.

 This footage, which was played before the jury, showed three officers searching for the deceased, who was wearing a blue hoodie. They show Lowe ducking behind two vans and reaching into his waist to throw a gun before PC Anderson shot him five times. 

 Inspector Marcian Frazier and Constable Shaniqua Nicholas, the two other officers at the scene of the shooting, testified that they and PC Anderson were on mobile patrol as part of the operation ceasefire that night.

 Both officers said that while at Liam’s Bar on Kemp Road, Constable Anderson told them he saw the deceased with a gun running from the rear of the building. 

 After pursuing Lowe to Mil’s Bar, Constable Nicholas shouted, “gun, Andy gun, gun” after she allegedly saw the deceased pull a black handgun from his waist while Constable Anderson was approaching him.

 A black Baretta 9mm pistol was allegedly recovered from a nearby car lot west of the restaurant after the incident.

 Pathologist Dr Caryn Sands testified that Lowe’s cause of death was gunshot wounds to the head, torso and left thigh. 

 K Melvin Munroe, who represented PC Anderson, thanked God during his closing submissions for the security footage, which he said confirmed the officers’account of events. 

 He said the officers had to make split-second decisions to protect their lives and those of civilians and that the deceased posed a deadly threat.

 Keod Smith represented the deceased’s estate.

 Acting Coroner Kara Turnquest Deveaux presided as Angelo Whitfield marshalled the evidence.