Supreme Court Awards Police Brutality Victim $82k

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Another claim of police brutality has resulted in the Royal Bahamas Police Force now having to pay a man more than $80,000 after he lost nine teeth when punched in the mouth by a police officer.

Kyle Walkine has his story.

We’ve blurred his face at his request. But it’s an experience 34-year-old Pedro Morley says he will never forget. Having a gun pulled on him and teeth punched out by a man he now knows was a police officer.  

It happened 2am on October 5th in 2019 as Morley left a popular nightclub off bay street, and began talking to a young woman on the outside. 

Morley says the man then pulled out a gun, but didn’t identify himself as a police officer until then. 

Morley says he left and drove to police headquarters but the gates were closed, so he continued along east street to head home. However, police cars then pulled up. 

Morley left with a bloody mouth, two shaky teeth and eight others damaged.  

But two years later, tooth after tooth had to be taken out. 

In the ruling supreme court assistant registrar Renaldo Toote said, “When the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s motto: ‘creating safer communities’ actually does right by the oppressed, only then will it truly exist. In a just and civil society, there is a legitimate expectation that the police would act fair at all times.” 

The plaintiff’s counsel submitted that in this case no apology has been proffered by the defendants, which demonstrates a lack of remorse. 

The officer hall at the center of the matter remains on the job. 

For Our News, I’m Kyle Walkine.