Michael Abrahams | The gruesome killing of Latoya Bulgin

While watching the TVJ Prime Time News on Sunday, May 17, I saw a report that covered a fatal police shooting in the community of Granville in Montego Bay. Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency in which the community is situated, Marlene Malahoo Forte, was interviewed about the incident and appeared very disturbed. She commented that she could not prejudge the case but that “it doesn’t look good”, adding that the commissioner would have to take immediate action in relation to the officer involved. Malahoo Forte is not only an MP. She was a resident magistrate, the attorney general of Jamaica, and the minister of legal and constitutional affairs. As such, she is well-versed in legal issues.

Later that evening, I realised why Malahoo Forte’s mood was so sombre when I saw a video of the incident. The clip began with an elevated rear view of a black Toyota Voxy van parked on the left side of the road. A policeman, armed with a high-powered rifle, is standing at the driver’s door, speaking with the driver. A woman, later identified as Latoya Bulgin, exits the vehicle and stands beside it while continuing to speak with the officer. She re-enters the van, and another officer, also armed with a high-powered rifle, enters the frame from the left, walks behind the vehicle, and then to the right. Subsequently, several passengers exit the vehicle. 

The policeman with whom Ms Bulgin had a conversation is now standing in front of the vehicle, to the left. He points at her and appears to say something to her. The left front wheel of the car turns to the right, and the car moves slightly forward, the tyre making less than one revolution as the brake light, which was on, goes off.  The cop fires one shot from a handgun directly at the driver, through the windshield, then takes three steps backward, and the brake light goes on again as the vehicle comes to an immediate halt. He then walks in front of the vehicle over to the right side while aiming his weapon at her. Less than a minute later, the unresponsive woman is pulled out of the vehicle by the other cop, with the upper part of her body placed, initially, on the road. As her body is being pulled out, the brake light goes off. Her legs are then grasped by the same cop and the rest of her body removed and placed on the road. The officer who shot her then grasps her arms and the other holds her legs, and they swing her body unto the back of a police pickup (beside some tyres) that had just driven up alongside her vehicle, and the back door (tailgate) of the pickup is slammed shut, after eight attempts, against her body. The vehicle then drives off, leaving the driver’s door of her van still open, and as it is driving away, the tailgate that had been forcefully closed against her body falls open, exposing her.

There is a principle that one should allow a court of law to determine innocence or guilt in matters such as these. But it looked like murder to me. It looked like murder to a lot of us.

I do not think the officer who shot Ms Bulgin was in imminent danger, and I believe the force used against her was disproportionate to any risk she may have posed to him.  The direction of the front wheels, the fact that the vehicle barely moved forward and that the brake light immediately went off as Ms Bulgin’s body was being removed, suggesting that one of her feet may have been on the brake, indicate to me that she was not trying to run over him. If you want to run over someone, your foot would press down on the accelerator, and the vehicle would likely keep going forward if you were to get shot.  Also, she appeared to have been unarmed as the footage showed no weapon being retrieved from her body when she was hauled out of her vehicle.

Even if the cop uses self-defence as an excuse, the rough and inhumane manner in which Ms Bulgin’s body was handled in the aftermath of her shooting is deplorable and inexcusable. If a suspect is shot by the police and is unresponsive, they should be checked for signs of life. The footage showed that this was not done, and her body was swiftly extracted from the vehicle less than a minute after being shot. If Ms Bulgin were alive, throwing her body into the back of a pickup and slamming the tailgate against it is not only dehumanising but could also cause further injuries that could hasten her demise. If she were already dead, the desecration of her body like that would be a despicable act. The police force owes us no apologies for actions in the line of duty that we may not like but are deemed necessary. Its members have a very difficult and dangerous job, and sometimes deadly force is necessary not only to protect them but also to protect us. However, the act of throwing the woman’s body around the way those cops did is deserving of condemnation.

Five days after the event, while addressing a graduation ceremony at the National Police College of Jamaica, Prime Minister Andrew Holness extended condolences to the family and community of Ms Bulgin. While commenting on the incident, he said: “How we treat our injured, most vulnerable, weakest amongst us, how we treat the remains of the deceased, tells us a lot about the kind of civilisation we are.”

The actions of the officers involved in the shooting death of Ms Bulgin were indeed savage and uncivilized. We should all be outraged.

Michael Abrahams is an obstetrician and gynaecologist, social commentator, and human-rights advocate. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and michabe_1999@hotmail.com, or follow him on X @mikeyabrahams.