Just before the Christmas Holiday weekend, 25-year-old resident of Santa Cruz Village, Andrew McDougall died at the hospital after suffering complications from the beatdown he received from two police officers weeks earlier.
Cell phone video emerged, capturing the moment the officers roughed him up and body-slammed him into the back of a police pickup truck. A post-mortem certified that McDougall died from those injuries, which refused to heal because he's a hemophiliac, a blood condition which doesn't allow a patient's blood to clot properly. Because of this, McDougall continued to bleed internally for weeks, until he passed away. The Police Commissioner asserted that the officers would face serious consequences for the incident.
And, they have. Today police arrested and charged two police officers for manslaughter: they are 29 year old John Lucas, and 25 year-old Jameel Lewis, both police officers of Independence village. Also charged is 23 year old Tessa Stuart, another police officer of independence village and she got charged for perverting the course of justice. Today, all three officers were arraigned at the Intermediate Southern Formation's Magistrate Court, where Tessa Stuart pleaded not guilty and was offered bail of $1000 dollars. No please was taken from her fellow officers, Lucas and Lewis who were remanded until March 27th.
This evening, McDougall's aunt, Pamela Reyes, spoke with us via WhatsApp and she said, "I must say I feel justice starting... reading the news… brings back so much pain... Your young life was taken away..at age 25. [Yet], even with your sickness, you were making the best of life. God knows the pain we feel and are still feeling... R.I.P. my Nephew." End quote.