Cop charged for shooting man over scamming spoils acquitted
Published:Saturday | November 25, 2023 | 12:10 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
A FORMER police constable accused of shooting a man in an alleged dispute over $2.3 million and other items reportedly stolen from scammers in 2009 was on Thursday freed of wounding with intent charges in the Home Circuit Court.
The 38-year-old ex-cop, Mwanda Pryce, who was arrested in April 2019, following his deportation from the United States, was found not guilty by Justice Cayls Wiltshire after a four-day judge-alone trial.
Pryce, who was assigned to the Grants Pen Police Post at the time of the incident, was initially charged with attempted murder, but the charge was downgraded.
He was charged along with three other persons, including two policemen, who were freed of robbery with aggravation charges.
The victim, Ian McPherson, was also arrested and charged, but pleaded guilty to robbery with aggravation and illegal possession of firearm and was sentenced to three years in prison in 2010.
The civilian was also charged with robbery, but was later acquitted.
According to the allegations, on July 29, 2009, Pryce accompanied McPherson to carry out a robbery at a house in Stony Hill, St Andrew, along with another policeman and civilians.
McPherson, a videographer, had allegedly approached another cop to carry out the robbery, who then invited Pryce to participate.
Following the robbery, the men allegedly went to premises at Taylor Avenue in Kingston, where a dispute developed between Pryce and McPherson over how the spoils should be shared.
Shortly after, it is further alleged that McPherson went on his motorcycle to leave, but heard Pryce calling out to him.
He allegedly looked around and saw a man, whom he called “the braid hair man”, pulling a gun at him and he was shot twice in the forehead.
McPherson reportedly fell to the ground and while he was down, Pryce and two other men allegedly pulled a gun at him and shot him. He was shot six times.
Left in gully
The men then reportedly took up the injured man and carried him to a nearby gully where they left him.
McPherson, however, managed to ride his bike to a gas station, where he was assisted to the hospital by a policeman. He later underwent surgery.
Attorney-at-law Denise Walker, who represented Pryce, said her client was acquitted because the judge did not find McPherson to be credible. She said there were several inconsistencies in his statement and that he had also given a different version of what occurred.
According to her, McPherson, in his first statement, made no mention of Pryce shooting him, but named him in his second statement, which he gave in 2011.
“When I was cross-examining him about it, he said it was the police who did their investigation and came up with the name Pryce, and while he was in custody, he learnt of the name Mwanda,” the attorney said.
She further pointed out that McPherson, in one version of the incident, reported that he was shot in the Cassia Park gully by gunmen while riding.
Meanwhile, Walker, when asked to describe Pryce’s reaction to his acquittal, said, “He is joyous. He maintains his innocence.
“The witness was coerced to tell a lie on him,” she added.