8 December 2004 - Sandra Sewell, 37, a COAV study participant and community activist in the Kingston inner-city area of August Town was shot dead by a member of the Jamaica Defence Force on September 19. On the same day, Gion "Neil" Halcott, a 20 year-old community resident and member of the August Town Football Club was also killed by the army. Sewell was interviewed in february by COAV researchers on youth involvement in gang violence.
Residents of the Jungle 12 and Angola areas of the community took to the streets after the shootings, claiming that both residents were killed without cause. The soldiers and police were patrolling August Town following outbreaks of violence between the Jungle 12 and Colour Red gangs. Sewell was considered a vital contact in Jamaica for her insight into youth involvement in both ‘corner’ and ‘community’ gangs and her insight into community dynamics in August Town.
"We don’t want no soldier"
At a rally at the local police station, COAV study participant and founder of the youth organisation August Town Sports and Community Development Foundation, Kenneth Wilson, called for the immediate removal of the army from the community. "We don't want no soldier in our community," activist Wilson said. "All soldiers must leave around here."
According to the official police report, members of a joint police/military team were patrolling the Jungle 12 area when they came upon a group of persons, including one man smoking marijuana [believed to be Halcott]. The man was accosted by a member of the patrol team. "It is clear that shots were fired and later it was discovered that Halcott and Sewell had received gunshot wounds," said the Constabulary Communication Network to the Jamaican newspaper the Observer.
Police originally claimed that a Mack II submachine gun was found on the scene. However, community members accused the security forces of cold-blooded murder and brutality. No gun was recovered, they said, and Sewell was killed as she crouched to escape the gunfire from the patrol team.
Sewell, who was reading social work at the University of the West Indies, Mona, was well known for her community work. Hours before she died, she was reportedly involved in the handing out of relief supplies in the area following Hurricane Ivan. She, along with Halcott, was on the way to a party when the soldiers swooped down on the area and started roughing up residents, the protesters told the Observer.
Residents said that Halcott was shot in the belly by a soldier, and then shot again as he attempted to flee. "Me see one soldier shot Neil in him belly and him spin out a him shoes," said one irate man. "Him try run off but the soldier go down pan him knee and shot him some more. Him drop pan him back and sit up before him drop down and start gap."
Sewell, the residents claimed, was killed as she tried to call out to the soldiers. "The soldier shot after her and she duck and ask, ‘a wha’? And him just pump shot in her and kill her on the spot," a woman reported.
Amnesty International condemns the killings
Amnesty International condemned the killings as did local human rights group Jamaicans For Justice, saying the incident was an example of the "dangers inherent" in the state of public emergency declared following Hurricane Ivan. In an October press release, Amnesty International called on the military to cooperate in investigations into the killings.
For Jamaica researcher for Amnesty International Olivia Streater, physical evidence from autopsies and the crime scene supports eyewitness accounts of the deaths of Sewell and Alcott. "There is now serious pressure on the Jamaican military and police authorities to ensure individual soldiers provide detailed explanations of what they did, and if they fired shots, why and when," said Ms Streater. "If the evidence suggests unlawful killings, it should be placed before a jury to decide."
Derrick Pounder, worldwide forensic expert and Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Dundee, observed the autopsies of Sandra Sewell and Gayon Alcott on behalf of Amnesty International. He also visited the scene of the killings, which occurred on 19 September in August Town.
"Sandra Sewell was killed instantly with a gunshot from a military rifle," said Professor Pounder in an Amnesty press release. "The general circumstances do not suggest that she posed a threat to the life of officers at the time of the incident."
"She was shot in the back..."
"She was shot in the back. Eye witnesses say she was crouching down trying to avoid gunfire at the time, so there is, on the face of it, corroboration of their statements," continued Professor Pounder.
"Gayon Alcott was shot twice -- first in the lane, and then again as he was being pursued, according to eye-witnesses, and the autopsy findings support this scenario."
Investigations into allegations of excessive force by soldiers have been marred by the Jamaican military's failure to disclose accurate, full information says human rights organisations. "In a meeting in March 2003, the Chief of Staff of the Jamaican Defence Force assured an Amnesty International delegation that human rights abuses by his soldiers would not be tolerated and that all allegations of abuses would be thoroughly investigated," said Amnesty’s Streater. "The military must now make good this statement, by providing full cooperation with police investigations". No arrests have been made in the deaths of Sewell and Halcott, and investigations are ongoing.
The large community of August Town is located adjacent to the University of the West Indies. It is not your typical Kingston inner-city community; with its paved streets, tidy lower-middle class homes and corner shops setting it apart from the city’s poorest areas. Despite its appearance, the area has been plagued by factional violence and intra and inter-neighbourhood conflict.
Gangs in the area include small ‘corner’ gangs, often made up of unemployed or sub-employed adolescents and young men, and larger ‘community’ gangs such as Jungle 12. For Jamaican sociologist Horace Levy, community gangs are formed primarily to defend their communities from criminality from both inside and outside.
Sources: The Observer, Amnesty International.
Read further: Buildind the peace in August Town
