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“My son did not kill himself!”
– mother wants probe into son’s alleged suicide in police cell
“I want justice for my son – I know he did not kill himself in that lock up, so I would like to see a thorough investigation into this matter.”
That’s the appeal of Camille Smith, the mother of 19-year-old Maurice Sumner, who reportedly committed suicide two Thursdays ago, while in custody at the Mackenzie Police Station.
Sumner had been in police detention since Monday November 21st, following an altercation with an uncle he had allegedly chopped.
Smith, who was living overseas, said that she was returning home to surprise her son.
Instead, it was she who got the surprise, and a nasty one at that.
“I come home to be with my son, to see him, because I hadn’t seen him in 11 years, but instead of meeting a living son, I meet a dead one.”
I came here prepared to take him back with me, and I know that he would‘ve been happy to see me, so why would he commit suicide?”
Smith said that Sumner who lived with his father in Amelia’s Ward, was her only child.
His grandmother, Dora Andrews, said that she had gone to the Mackenzie Police Station on the very Thursday of the tragedy.
Maurice Sumner
Camille Smith
“I went to the police station to see my grandson that very Thursday, but when I asked to see him, a female officer told me that she couldn’t open the lockups then, because if she did, she would faint.”
Andrews said that she later went home, and around 15.00 hrs that day, three police officers visited her home and told her that Maurice had committed suicide.
The grandfather said that Maurice had been locked up, following an altercation with his uncle, whom he had chopped.
“Maurice was on his way to work two Mondays ago, and overheard his uncle cussing out the grandmother.
“He went into the house and rebuked his uncle about abusing his grandmother and that is what started the whole thing. The uncle picked up a piece of iron and Maurice went for a cutlass. That is how he (uncle) end up getting chop.”
Sumner said that Maurice was kept in detention until his death on Thursday November 24.
According to a police report, Maurice Sumner was discovered hanging in his cell at the Mackenzie Police Station. He was hanging from a grill bar with the jersey he had been wearing.
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