Jamaican Police.Com

Monica Williams, the mother of 15-year-old schoolboy Jason Smith, who was fatally shot by the police in Spanish Town, St Catherine, in July 2002, was the victor in court yesterday, as Supreme Court judge Bertram Morrison entered judgment in her favor, in the suit for damages that she had filed against the Government.

Smith was fatally shot by the police on the night of July 9, 2002, while being towed on a bicycle. Smith was unarmed at the time, but the police alleged that Smith retrieved a gun from the bag he was carrying, and fired at them first. Eyewitnesses however testified that the policemen chased Smith, beat him, and shortly after, they heard a shot and saw the police lift his body and throw it into a jeep.

Corporal Rudolph Rhoden, Constable Dwight Roberts and Special Constable Linton Pascoe, all of whom were attached to the Special Anti-Crime Task Force, were charged with Smith’s murder, but a 12-member jury freed them in December 2005.

Smith’s mother filed a suit in the Supreme Court seeking damages against the attorney general and the policemen who were accused of shooting her son. She sought constitutional redress and compensation for damages which include negligence and loss of life, and when the matter came before Justice Morrison yesterday for pre-trial review, judgment was entered for the claimant and the case set for assessment of damages. The damages are to be assessed in the Supreme Court later this year.

Tags : Jason Smith, Lawsuit, Monica Williams