Westmoreland man acquitted in gun case linked to missing surveillance video

A man who was arrested and charged with gun-related crimes after cops viewed a video recording of a shooting incident has been acquitted.

Kavern Patrick was found not guilty of using a firearm to commit a felony and shooting with intent in the Western Regional Gun Court on Thursday.

Gun Court trials are not open to the public.

The charges were based on an incident in Hatfield district, Westmoreland, on September 1, 2023, in which businessman Andre Reid, also known as ‘Dus’, reported that a lone gunman opened fire at him during an attack at his home.

Reid was killed before Patrick’s trial began.

In a statement recorded by investigators before his death, Reid indicated that footage of the shooting was captured by a nearby surveillance camera, but said the owner refused to share it with the police, citing security concerns.

However, he said he got permission to share the footage with police investigators.

The statement was admitted into evidence under section 31 (D) of the Evidence Act.

Donnovan Collins, the attorney who represented Patrick, said the video recording was never produced in court.

Collins said prosecutors cited case laws and presented legal arguments that were accepted by the presiding judge indicating that the police are allowed to give evidence about what they see in a video recording, “even if the recording is not present in court”.

However, he noted that a judge or a jury must then decide what weight to give to the evidence of the police about such a recording.

“It appears that not much weight was given to the investigator’s evidence about this video which was not produced in court,” the attorney said, making reference to the case against his client.

Collins indicated that there were also issues with the identification evidence, arguing that it was not done in accordance with established guidelines.

He noted, too, that Reid did not know his attacker before the shooting, which occurred “under difficult circumstances”.

- Livern Barrett

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