The ammunition recovered from the July 18 shooting at Linden is different from the regular ones issued by the police, English ballistics expert, Dr Mark Nicholas Robinson told the commission of inquiry probing the shooting incident. This revelation has led many to believe that the shots which killed the three people during the protests in Linden were fired by someone else, thereby vindicating the police from any wrongdoing as far as the deaths are concerned.
English ballistics expert, Dr Mark Nicholas Robinson
This new explosive evidence would be a slap in the face of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and Alliance For Change (AFC) which presumed that the police fired the fatal shots on the day in question.
“I was provided with a total of three rounds of ammunition, which I was told that two were used and the third has been used since 2005. One was Challenger Number 6; second, a Number 4 – those were small pellets; and the third cartridge contained 00 buck pellets, but those were different than those in question,” he said.
“… the ones recovered were pellets that were coated with a light coating of copper whereas the police ammunition were just lead and I was informed that 00 pellets were never used since 2005,” Dr Robinson added.
He said he visited the scene on Saturday last and spoke to witnesses and returned to Police Headquarters, Eve Leary, where he conducted tests on the pellets recovered from the remains of the dead and the injured at the Police Ballistics Laboratory.
He noted that during the compilation of his reports he used information contained in the post-mortem reports by Trinidad’s pathologist Professor Hubert Daisley and government’s pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh.
In his report, Dr Robinson stated that the locations of the victims are consistent with shots having been fired along the road towards the Wismar-Mackenzie Bridge and from the road towards the Linmine Secretariat Building.
He said that at the Police Headquarters he met with Sergeant Jackson who handed over the recovered pellets. “Each of the items I examined proved to be lead buckshot pellets. These are pellets which would be contained within a shotgun cartridge,” he said.
“… it’s not possible to give a calibre just from the examination of pellets, but I found the most common calibre is 12-gauge, and I’m certainly aware that a number of manufacturers make buckshot cartridges in 12-gauge and I have no reason to suspect that the calibre of gun used could be anything but 12-gauge,” he opined.
He explained that pellets can be measured by their size and weight. He was also shown a photograph of the police holding a gun and was asked to determine the calibre of the weapon.
“You can’t tell the gauge just by looking at the shotgun, but nothing suggests anything but 12-gauge, they are pumpaction shotguns, so I have no reason to suspect that they are anything but capable of discharging 12-gauge cartridges,” he responded.
Dr Robinson’s report stated that the pellets recovered from the bodies bore no evidence of having “ricocheted from a road surface”. “The pellets recovered bore no evidence of being ricocheted from a road surface, because lead shotgun pellets are very soft and if it was to strike a road surface, it would be badly deformed and there would be traces of debris on. I looked for evidence of debris and evidence of it being deformed but I found no such evidence,” he said as he sought to explain.
“Each victim was hit by one, two, or three pellets, now distance determination with shotguns depends on the shot pattern produced. When all the pellets hit the target and the pellets spread out, the farther they are away from the muzzle and if fired into a wall, it would produce a circular pattern,” he said when asked about the pattern and the possibility of someone just being hit by one pellet.
