Corporal Troy Whittaker, who is attached to the Crime Scenes Unit (CSU) at Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters, Eve Leary, said he was present when Dr Neohal Singh performed post mortem examinations on the corpses of Steve Grant, Antoine Houston called ‘Yankee’ and John Bruce.

The victims were fatally shot by Target Special Squad Police on July 29, 2001, at the junction of Mandela Avenue and Access Road, Industrial Site, Ruimveldt, also in Georgetown.

At the continuing inquiry, Mr. Robert Corbin is representing the family of Grant while Mr. Basil Williams continues to look into the interest of the relatives of Houston and Bruce and Mr. Vic Puran is appearing for the Police.

The Wednesday resumption was delayed for about 45 minutes because of the late arrival of Williams and Corbin, who showed 15 minutes before the pathologist.

Whittaker said he was at Georgetown Public Hospital mortuary about 09:00 hours (9 am) on July 30, 2001 when the operations started.

He said Singh removed pieces of metal, which appeared to be bullets from Houston’s right upper arm and under Bruce’s vest.

Two similar objects were taken from the lower right side of Grant’s body while two others of cardboard and some plastic material were extracted from his left lower back and something flat from under his vest.

All the things were handed to him and he placed them in separate white boxes on which he put the respective names, Whittaker said.

On completion of the exercise, the doctor pronounced on the cause of death of each of the dead men and their remains were turned over to their relatives for burial.

Whittaker said, during the examinations, Singh made notes of his findings and kept them but, on September 13, 2001, he received the original typed copies of the reports from Singh’s secretary and he recognized, on them, the medical practitioner’s signature with which he is familiar.

The witness said the documents were lodged with the officer-in-charge of the CSU for safekeeping and retrieved later that day.

Whittaker, who also made a written statement, said, on his way to CID Headquarters, he took out what was in the separate boxes to let air dry them before putting them in yellow envelopes, which he sealed prior to lodging them again at the CSU.

Subsequently, he collected the documentation and prepared individual analyses on the deceased.

The envelopes with the analytical forms were deposited at the CSU once more but again recovered and taken to be analysed for a ballistics report, Whittaker told the Court.

Questioned by Puran, the witness said the post mortem examinations took about one hour and twenty minutes and no one else was denied permission to be present for the purpose.

Cross-examined by Williams, Whittaker said Namela Henry, who is related to Bruce, witnessed the autopsy on him but another relative, Claudette Shawls was not there.

Whittaker said, as Singh went about his task, he examined the cadavers from head to toe and took off his gloves when he, himself, was documenting his findings.

The witness said he saw just one wound on the upper arm and cannot tell whether Houston had multiple gunshot wounds about the body.

At that stage, Williams drew to the Coroner’s attention that the tendered report confirmed Houston suffered six gunshot wounds, three of which were fatal.

There was also a bullet to the head and a wound on the back, the lawyer pointed out.