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1 month later police report on killing of Hernandez still not public
The public is also asking if we can trust the institutions such as the police, the Office of the Director of Public Persecutions (DPP) and elected officials to protect the people’s rights.
It was over a month now since the report carried out by the Royal Turks and Caicos Police Force into the police shooting of Santo Y. Hernandez was handed over on March 8, 2018, to Commissioner of Police (CoP), Michael B. Mathews with copies being given to both the DPP and Governor Augustus J. U. Jaspert.
The CoP said in a statement last month that the Governor will make the report public “once the ok is given by the DPP”. A call today May 9, 2018, to the Office of the DDP on when the report will be made public, they referred us to the Governor’s Office.
Can we trust them?
In a call to the Governor’s Office, our newsroom was told that Governor Jaspert was out of office and they took our number and some four hours later no call back was forthcoming.
It is clear that the public is now becoming suspicious and mistrusting of the police, the DPP and the Governor over this matter.
The media, civil society and local legal activists are asking if Mr Mathews already stated publicly that the police life was in danger and the deceased prisoner accused of murder was "violent" then why can’t the report be forthcoming on what happened.
This report and the truth of what happened many believe is a test of the popular CoP’s credibility and integrity and whether the public will continue to have faith and trust in him.
Background
There was also confusion over whether Mr Hernandez, one of three escaped prisoners who were still on the run after some 143 inmates broke out of Her Majesty’s Prison on Tortola following Hurricane Irma on September 6, 2017, was armed with a gun.
At the time of his shooting, after police got a tip that Mr Hernandez was in an abandoned house at Butu Mountain on the main island of Tortola, Mr Mathews said, "armed officers were confronted with a violent escaped prisoner”.
The dead man was accused of the murder of Alston E. Penn in 2017, but did not live to be tried or convicted of the crime.
Confusion was cleared up over the issue of whether Mr Hernandez had a gun or a knife on the morning of December 6, 2017, when National Security Council officials, after receiving their briefing, confirmed to our newsroom that he only had a knife.
On December 7, 2017, a day later, Mr Hernandez died even though police said he was in "stable condition at Peebles Hospital under police guard".
A day later, Commissioner Mathews told the public that he had ordered an investigation into the police killing of Mr Hernandez and it will be “transparent” and “independent”.
On Monday December 11, 2017, some 12 police officers from the Royal Turks and Caicos Police Force arrived in the Virgin Islands to conduct the investigations.
The report was handed over to the CoP on March 8, 2018, however, it’s yet to be made public.
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