The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

AZARIO Major’s father fears the public may never learn the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution’s recommendation on whether officers who killed his son should be prosecuted, given the police commissioner’s silence in previous police-involved killings.

The Tribune understands that the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions sent a recommendation to Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander last month, more than a year after the Coroner’s Court ruled that Azario Major’s killing was a homicide by manslaughter. While the Coroner’s Court does not determine criminal liability, the DPP’s office reviews the evidence after such rulings and decides whether to prosecute the officers involved. By convention, the police always follow the DPP’s guidance.

The decision from the DPP’s office was delayed because officers unsuccessfully asked the Supreme Court to overturn the Coroner’s Court ruling, citing pretrial publicity.

Azario Major’s case is the latest instance where the commissioner has remained silent on the DPP’s recommendation. In April, acting Director of Public Prosecutions Cordell Fraizer sent him her guidance regarding the killings of Shanton Forbes, Deangelo Evans, and Dino Bain, but the commissioner has not revealed her instructions despite repeated questions from The Tribune.

Yesterday, Frederick Major, Azario’s father, voiced concern over his silence and questioned whether the police chief was protecting the officers.

His family, he said, is frustrated.

“This should not only be a cause of alarm for the families of the individuals who have been killed but this should be a cause of alarm for the entire nation that the commissioner of police has failed to do his due diligence as the commissioner of police,” he said while calling on the attorney general and prime minister to intervene.

Mr Major said there needs to be legislative reform regarding police-involved shootings. 

He believes that officers found to have unjustifiably killed someone should be automatically charged in court without the need for an intermediary step.

“No one should have the sole responsibility to undermine the facts that have been founded and the verdict of unjustifiably killing another in the Coroner’s Court,” he said.

“Our national security is corroded to the core because the persons who are responsible for the gatekeeping of the law has failed this country and they’re all complicit because they have all refused to ensure that justice prevails.”

“And that is why the guys on the streets take matters into their own hand. Listen, my family, we are burdened, we are frustrated. I’m personally fighting with my anger with everything that’s going on in our country in reference to the Royal Bahamas Police Force.”