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provide evidence of where a person firing a weapon was
located, especially as it relates to Security Force personnel,
who had allocated and identifiable weapons. Equally,
recovered bullet fragments … can, in some instances, enable
a match to be made to specific weapon.”
14.57.
The Government Forensic Laboratory’s ballistic report indicated a
total of 36 spent casings and two bullet fragments recovered, and 28 of the 36
spent casings were recovered in one location. The report showed that the
casings did not match any of the weapons submitted to the Laboratory nor could
any of the fragments be identified with a particular firearm.
14.58.
There were 38 witness statements received by INDECOM from
police officers who acknowledged firing their weapons. Eight reported firing on
23 May and the other 30 reported firing on 24 May. There were no statements
submitted which acknowledged firings after 24 May. No statements from JCF
officers mentioned injuring or killing anyone. The JDF provided a document
titled “Record of Arms and Ammunition Expenditure – Operation Garden Parish
May – July 2010”, recording weapons issued, soldier receiving, the amount of
ammunition supplied and the number of rounds discharged.
14.59.
The JDF expended, for that period, 7,610 rounds. The JCF seems
to have expended a total of 1,516 rounds. Only 36 spent casings were
recovered and submitted from Tivoli for analysis.
14.60.
In evidence-in-chief Mr. Campbell expressed the opinion that “there
is no evidence that best practice was observed between 24 May and 4 June
2010”. He said that there is a great disparity between the number of rounds
fired and the number of spent shells recovered.
14.61.
He testified that he has in his possession a –
“written response from the Commissioner of Police that they
have no record of where officers were in the area of