The man who drowned in the Rio Cobre on Wednesday after seemingly leaping from a police vehicle has been identified as a 73-year-old farmer. The deceased, Melton Smith, was reportedly being transported from the Bog Walk Police Station to the Spanish Town lock-up when the incident unfolded.
Smith, a resident of Mickelton Meadows, Linstead, died at Flat Bridge in St. Catherine. According to reports, Smith was a suspect in an alleged case of abduction and carnal abuse, sexual abuse, particularly towards a child.
Around 1:00 p.m., while officers were driving across the bridge, he allegedly jumped from the back of the police service vehicle and plunged into the river. Video shows the elderly prisoner leaping from the moving police pickup, still handcuffed to a tyre. Both the man and the tyre struck the bridge before falling into the water. Moments later, the tyre resurfaced and drifted downstream, but Smith did not reappear.
Police and firefighters rushed to the scene, with reinforcements arriving shortly after. The footage indicated that officers returned to the bridge within minutes, scanning the water and surrounding areas. Officials spent a few hours at the scene and left the area sometime after 2:00 p.m.
After Smith was eventually pulled from the Rio Cobre, he was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Inspectorate and Professional Standards Oversight Bureau (IPROB) and the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) have since launched separate probes into the circumstances leading up to Smith’s death.
There are many questions the public has yet to have answered, such as why Smith was restrained in that manner and how he managed to exit the vehicle. The speculation that the prisoner was attempting to escape has not been confirmed by the authorities. Some assume that suicidal intentions may have been behind his motive to jump from the police van.