Tivoli shootout case collapses after cops’ testimony - Champagnie renews call for body cameras after businessman cleared in gun case 

The trial of a businessman who cops claim was among a group of armed thugs who engaged them in a fierce gun battle in 2023 collapsed in court yesterday after a number of crucial admissions by police witnesses.

 Neil Anderson was freed in the Gun Court Division of the Supreme Court after the presiding judge upheld legal arguments by his attorneys that there was no case for him to answer and entered verdicts of acquittal on all charges.

 He was facing three counts of shooting with intent and one count of possession of a prohibited weapon, a charge that carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison.

 Anderson was arrested on November 11, 2023, following a high-speed chase that ended in the west Kingston community of Tivoli Gardens.

 The police alleged at the time that he and seven other men exited a Toyota Hiace bus and opened fire at a team of three cops involved in the chase.

 At the end of the shooting, Anderson was found on the ground suffering from a gunshot wound to the head and was transported to hospital, the police account claimed.

 But according to evidence in the case, two of the three cops admitted, during cross-examination, that following the shoot-out, they saw no damage to the police service vehicle or the Hiace bus.

 The cops acknowledged that the shooting occurred in an open field and that they were approximately 16 to 20 feet from the armed men, evidence seen by The Gleaner revealed.

 It revealed, too, that the lead police investigator in the case gave evidence during cross-examination that apart from the spent shells that came from the weapons of the policemen involved in the incident, no other spent casings were recovered at the scene.

 Further, the two policemen who were involved in the shootings gave evidence that they could not provide a description of any of the seven men they claimed were with Anderson when the alleged shoot-out began.

 King’s Counsel Peter Champagnie, the attorney who represented Anderson, along with Sayeed Bernard, believes the case marks another incident of an alleged confrontation between the police and citizens “which calls into question the excesses of police action”.

 “It also re-emphasises the necessity for body-worn cameras,” he said.

 Minister of National Security and Peace Dr Horace Chang has made it clear that cops assigned to operational duties where they are likely to confront armed criminals will not be wearing body cameras and dismissed the suggestion by stakeholder groups as “a crazy idea”.

 The suggestion for body- worn cameras to be issued to cops involved in planned operations was made by the Independent Commission of Investigations, which has oversight responsibility for the security forces, and Jamaicans for Justice, a civil society group, amid a sharp increase in police fatal shootings.

 But Chang, who is also deputy prime minister, said doing so would put the police at risk.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com