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Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) is on lockdown and has again come under scrutiny, this time after an altercation between two inmates on Tuesday, left one dead.
According to initial police reports, the deceased inmate is Akeem Browne, whose last known address was Fort Road. Allegations are that Browne was stabbed by a fellow prisoner sometime between 11 and 11: 30 am over a cellphone. Browne was 22-years-old.
Further accounts of the morning’s event disclose that the prisoners’ were let out of their cells for their usual morning routine, and were milling about the courtyard, when Browne was rushed upon by another inmate, also in his twenties. He was reportedly stabbed in the chest with a cutlass.
The injured inmate was rushed to the Mount St. John’s Medical Centre (MSJMC), where he was firstly said to be hanging on to life. Less than half an hour later, however, he succumbed to his injuries. Browne was due to be released from the penal facility at year’s end, when his four year sentence for robbery would have been served.
Police investigations into what is now the country’s 8th homicide for the year, are ongoing.
Meantime, a close relative of Browne told Caribbean Times that mother of the deceased “was not handling the news very well”. The relative, who wished not to be named publicly, conveyed to this newspaper that regardless of what a person would have been incarcerated for, they deserve a fair chance in front of a judge and jury, as opposed to ‘vigilante justice’.
“Wa them a argue bout phone for? As far as me know, phone and cutlass illegal, them not allowed in there. And a them two illegal things get the youth kill. And he just a look for come out a that place. This ya go jus done he old lady, them kind a tings nah right,” the bereaved relative said.
Efforts to reach prison officials for clarity on the matter proved futile up to press time.