Still no answers on soldier’s death

Five months after being shot and killed under mysterious circumstances at a police station, the law enforcement probe into the death of Barbados Defence Force (BDF) soldier Pablo Kinch has reached a “very delicate stage”, the Royal Barbados Police Force has indicated.

So much so, that Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Crime Management, Richard Boyce, has even declined to say if progress was being made into the death of Lance Corporal Kinch while he was on duty at District ‘A’ Police Station last April 6.

“That is still being looked into. We are still carrying out investigations. That is the most I can say at this time,” ACP Boyce told Barbados TODAY this evening.

Asked if progress was being made, he replied: “I don’t want to go too far. There is a reason why because of the stage it is at. I don’t want to say anything that would offset something that we are doing. So that is why.”

In response to another question, the senior police officer said it was too early to say whether a commission of enquiry would be conducted into the gun-killing of the soldier.

A check with the BDF this evening revealed that the military will also carry out its own investigation but only after the police concludes its probe.

Preliminary police investigations indicated that Kinch and three colleagues from the BDF had just returned from a joint patrol with police officers and were awaiting transportation back to their base when an incident occurred.

Lance Corporal Kinch, Lance Corporal Grandison, Private Gill and Private Brathwaite were at the base of the Police’s Tactical Response Unit at District “A” Station when a weapon was discharged.

Lance Corporal Kinch, who was attached to the army’s Paragon base, was shot in the right sternum and died as a result of his injury despite efforts by Police Constables Farley and Manning to resuscitate him, both of whom are emergency medical technicians.

Assistant Superintendent of Police David Wiltshire of the Criminal Investigations Division has been assigned to investigate the matter. (EJ)