By PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Staff Reporter
pbailey@tribunemedia.net
THE officer who killed Aliko Collins testified during a Coroner’s Court inquest that he thought he was a “dead man” because Collins allegedly cornered and pulled a gun on him while he was on a walk in Pinewood Gardens in 2017.
Now-retired Superintendent Basil Collie, the subject of the inquest, also alleged that two of the deceased’s accomplices grabbed this firearm after he shot Collins.
The inquest into the killing of Collins, 21, continued before acting Coroner Kara Turnquest-Deveaux yesterday.
Superintendent Collie alleged that an armed Collins accosted him on Bamboo Blvd in the early morning hours of February 8, 2017, prompting him to fatally shoot the deceased.
Superintendent Collie told the five-person jury that around 4.50am on the day of the shooting, he told his wife and daughter he was going for his regular morning walk.
He said he took his 9mm pistol, a red barbell, and a PVC pipe. He claimed he got the pipe to fend off dogs.
Supt Collie recalled that five minutes into his walk he was violently cut off by a silver coloured vehicle.
He said he became in fear for his life and his family when three men got out of the vehicle.
He claimed he saw the deceased, wearing all black, approach him. He claimed the deceased yelled at him, “Boy, come here.”
He said the deceased soon pointed a weapon at him and once again said, “Boy, I said come here.”
Supt Collie said he began to back away from his assailants and dropped his weight and pipe.
Supt Collie claimed that after dropping these items, he pulled out his weapon and identified himself as an officer before firing at the deceased.
He said after the deceased fell, the two other men immediately hurried back to their vehicle.
He claimed the two men then reversed, grabbed an object from Collins’ body and drove away from the scene.
He suspected the item the two men picked up was a gun.
An investigating officer had testified earlier that no weapon reportedly belonging to the deceased was retrieved from the scene.
Supt Collie said after the incident, he knocked on neighbours’ doors to get them to contact the police.
He said he had not walked that route again.
He said the experience changed his life.
Calling the incident “devastating”, he said he took action to neutralise a threat.
He told K Melvin Munroe, his lawyer, that he was unaware of what happened to the other two suspects because he was told to go home after the scene was processed.
When questioned by Angelo Whitfield, who marshalled the evidence, Superintendent Collie said he acted in accordance with his training and that he turned his weapon over for testing according to police protocol.
Answering questions from the jury, Superintendent Collie said he never saw the deceased with a Carlo Rossi bottle, nor did he see him draw it as a weapon.
He said although he only saw the deceased with a weapon, he suspected the other two men were also armed.
A young woman testified that before Collins’ shooting, she was accosted by him and two other men while she was walking alone on Cowpen Road around 3.30am.
She said that night, she saw a grey or silver Nissan pass her before it turned around and came towards her.
She calmly told the jury that a passenger in the front seat tried to grab her through the window.
She claimed that soon after, the car stopped and two passengers exited and walked towards her.
She said she heard the driver say, “come now, come get this thing”, which she interpreted as a reference to a firearm.
She said she started yelling for help and ran backwards into someone’s yard. Men came to her aid a short time later, causing her assailants to flee.
The young woman said she was in fear for her life throughout the ordeal and thought the men might rape her.
She recalled that later that day, while giving her statement at the East Street Police Station, two young men came in saying that their friend had been shot.
Although she said she did not immediately connect the pair with her assailants, she connected the two with her attackers after she saw their bullet-damaged car in the police parking lot.
She identified this same silver Nissan vehicle with the back window glass blown out in a photo shown in court.
The young woman agreed with Mr Munroe that she would not go to the police to make up a story. She added that she did not know her assailants.
Following this ordeal, she said she learnt not to walk alone at night.
She also said that she would not wish this experience on anyone.
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