180 / 494
179
FINDINGS
8.35.
We are unable to attribute blame to any one section of the
security forces who are clearly answerable for the damage to
Mr. McPherson’s property. His case should be further investigated
since it seems to us that $15,000.00 was wholly inadequate to cover
his total losses which we have no reason to disbelieve. The gunshot
holes are suggestive of damage by the security forces.
(xi)
Joan McCarthy
8.36.
Joan McCarthy lived at Building #22 Seaga Boulevard. About
2.30 p.m. on 24 May, she was at home with several members of her family. She
heard “a loud banging coming upstairs” while she was in a bathroom. She
rushed out and met five “hostile soldiers”. They ordered her out of her house.
All of the occupants of the house went downstairs to the verandah. The soldiers
went inside the house, spent about ten minutes and gathered downstairs. They
said the police were coming to search the house. About 5.00 p.m. the police
came. They questioned Dwayne Edwards, Ms. McCarthy’s daughter’s boyfriend
and Andre Smith, the grand-nephew of Ms. McCarthy.
8.37.
The soldiers said “All house clear” and the police told Smith to go
upstairs with them to search. George Lewis and Anthony Browne were also
taken upstairs but subsequently returned to join the other family members.
Andre and Dwayne did not come back. Then Ms. McCarthy heard shots “very
close”. She said “I looked up and start to bawl”. She told Jermaine Jackson, her
grandson, “They kill Dwayne”. She said she saw the same policemen who
carried Dwayne upstairs, coming back down with a body wrapped in his bed
sheet. One of his feet was protruding and blood was on the sheet. She said: “I
recognise Dwayne by his grey pants and a beige shoe”.