Nagra Plunkett and Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporters
WESTERN BUREAU:
LUCIUS THOMAS, police commissioner, said yesterday that the circumstances in which a 48-year-old police corporal was injured during an altercation at the Mount Salem Police Station barracks in St. James, may have been overstated.
The police commissioner told a gathering at a worship service at the Calvary Baptist Church in Montego Bay that the injuries received by Corporal Grantley Waite "do not speak to the beating we are now talking about."
Mr. Thomas stressed, however, that he was not saying there was no beating as reported
by the media last week. He was addressing the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) Annual Commemorative and Memorial Service.
"I've spoken to Dr. (Francis) Lindo (a consultant orthopaedic surgeon) at the Cornwall Regional Hospital and he will be speaking to me tomorrow morning as to the medical report," Commissioner Thomas said. "What I'm hearing from him, because I was outraged and still am outraged, is suggesting that what is being said is not so."
Cpl. Grantley Waite, who is attached to the Half-Way Tree Police Station, was reportedly hospitalised at Cornwall Regional Wednesday, November 16, with spinal injuries and fractures. He was subsequently transferred to the Kingston Public Hospital.
Initial reports were that he was beaten by colleagues when he sought a drink of water at the barracks. The policeman had been with his sister in Green Island, Hanover, where he was recuperating on a 10-day sick leave for a head wound, for which he had received eight stitches.
She reported him missing on Wednesday after he did not return home.
Yesterday Commissioner Thomas told The Gleaner that Corporal Waite was admitted to hospital on November 16. On the first day of hospitalisation he appeared confused. On day two doctors wanted to conduct an MRI on his spine, but the then-unidentified man was unable to give them a family contact.
On day three Corporal Waite for the first time identified himself as a policeman and when doctors checked on him there were signs of improvement to his limbs. On November 19, he requested a transfer to KPH because he was based in Kingston.
Superintendent Warren Clarke, commanding officer for the St. James Police Division, told The Gleaner on Saturday that only one policeman, a constable, had been implicated in the incident.
His information was that the constable was responding to calls for help from two female station cleaners and challenged the perceived intruder, who turned out to be Cpl. Waite. During the altercation, Waite allegedly tripped backwards and fell down a stairway.
"The investigation is in high gear. I personally, as Commissioner, have ordered and will see it through and inform the public accordingly," Mr. Thomas told the church gathering.
"I want every policeman and woman, who has been working assiduously, during this difficult and challenging situation to continue to give of your best. The majority of us are good law-abiding citizens and good police officers."
