Officer Sandy Mackey denied he had previously testified that while pursuing the prison inmates who mounted a deadly escape from Her Majesty’s Prison on January 17, an “object” came towards him “with both hands in the air.”
He told Coroner Linda Virgill that he “never said that.”
The Coroner’s Inquest is being held into the deaths of prison Corporal Dion Bowles and inmate Neil Brown, who died during January’s prison break.
Officer Mackey told the court yesterday that he first fired a warning shot while shouting, “Stop.”
He said this was followed by a second gunshot, when an “object” came towards him with only one hand in the air.
When questioned, Mackey maintained that he did not know if the men he saw were prisoners.
The officer also insisted that he never boarded the prison bus once it arrived in the Yamacraw Road area and never once pointed his weapon at any of the prisoners.
After his testimony, Mackey was told that he could be subject to a further recall.
Sergeant Stephen Sands was also slated to return to the witness box yesterday but failed to appear, prompting the coroner to issue a warrant for his arrest. The warrant was later canceled after the officer appeared with his attorney.
According to the prosecutor, Sgt. Sands was contacted on Wednesday and told to return to court the following day.
The prosecutor later received a letter indicating that the prison officer’s attorney, Ramona Farquharson, would not have been able to attend Thursday’s proceedings.
But according to the coroner, this was irrelevant to the witness’ failure to appear.
An hour after court was adjourned Ms. Farquharson appeared with her client.
The attorney insisted that the warrant for her client’s arrest should not have been issued, as he had not been contacted.
It was an argument that the coroner dismissed but explained that at all times the prison officer was told that he was subject to a recall.
Sgt. Sands was named during the testimony of an unidentified witness who said the officer was given $5,000 by former prison escapee Forrester Bowe in exchange for a gun.
Surveillance video showed that Sgt. Sands made a check of the C-block in the prison’s maximum security wing before the escape.
Based on the video, during his check, the prison officer spent approximately five seconds at former prison escapee, Corey Hepburn’s cell, C-16, before leaving.
According to prison officer Travis Bowe, who was explaining the video images to the court, there was no surveillance in the area that Sgt. Sands exited “at that time.”
The surveillance tape, which was time coded, also showed that at 2:14am an inmate between cells 18 and 21 stuck his hand through the cell bars, followed by another inmate.
The first prisoner threw what appeared to be a brown package to another inmate, who fished the items into his cell.
The video also showed that around 3:48am, the same thing happened only moments after Sgt. Sands made another check of the area with Principal Officer Gregory Rolle.
The passing of items was a regular occurrence in the prison, according to Officer Bowe.
According to the footage, it was around 4:10am on January 17 that Corporal Bowles walked to the rear section of Maximum Security’s C-block.
Officer Bowe explained to the court that at the time, Corporal Bowles appeared to speak to the inmate housed in C-17 and that prior to leaving the cellblock he was apparently called by another inmate to pass an item to a nearby prisoner.
About one to two minutes later, Corporal Bowles was tied up and attacked by at least three of the former escapees, one of whom was dressed in dark coloured shorts, and the others in long dark pants.
Sgt. Sands is expected to take the stand when testimony resumes on Tuesday at 10am.
By: Macushla N. Pinder, The Bahama Journal
