Will Hero in Tropic Air Hijacking be charged for neutralizing hijacker ? ComPol provides update

American national, Akinyela Sawa Taylor, did not survive Thursday’s hijacking of the Tropic Air flight.  He was fatally shot by one of the 15 passengers he held hostage.  The three men who got stabbed during attempts to subdue Taylor have been hailed heroes.  As the story unravels, one question that came up was whether the shooter, Fitzgerald Brown would face criminal charges.  Police Commissioner Chester Williams provided an update earlier today, indicating that the matter would go to the Director of Public Prosecutions for a determination.  He also spoke on the investigation as it relates to the plane as a crime scene.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “That is not something that is going to be decided by the police but I can tell you that from a legal standpoint looking at section 38 of the criminal code which deals with justifiable use of force and harm it says that a person may use force even to the extreme necessity to kill in certain circumstances and those circumstances include where it is perceived that one is going to cause grievous bodily harm to another or even greater than that and the force used can be either in defense of yourself or another person. Concerning the situation that confronted those persons that were on that flight where the lives of fourteen or fifteen other persons were in danger by a knife wielding man who had injured three persons on board that flight it would be reasonable to say that the force used was justified. And so what we are going to do is to put the file together and we’ll send it to the DPP for final determination. We don’t need to hold a plane pending the outcome of any court case. In this case I don’t think that there’s going to be a court case but what would have been done should there be one for example if Mr.Taylor was alive and be prosecuted through the DPP’s office a letter could have been issued to properly process and photograph the aircraft and that would have been done in the presence of a JP or a Magistrate and with that then the plane could have been returned to Tropic Air for normal operations while the case is still pending.”

As it relates to the ordeal on Holy Thursday, Commissioner Williams, gave a sequence of events that occurred mid-air.  He praised the pilot’s performance and indicated that all three injured men are now on the road to recovery.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “We just know that after the plane took off about six minutes in flight was when he moved to take over the plane and directed the pilot to change course and take him to the US. It was around that same time that he stabbed the pilot. Following that there were several different instances in the plane where other persons were stabbed. Again I want to say that the pilot Mr.Grange certainly did exceptionally well. Like I said he was stabbed about six minutes in flight, almost two hours up there bleeding profusely being severely injured and despite that he was able to keep his composure. I happen to have gone inside the radar room at the airport as he was communicating with the tower and throughout the whole discourse between him and the tower one would never know he was injured so severely because he was extremely calm and well composed. So I must say that he did well and if you were at the airport and you watched how the plane landed the plan had such a smooth landing. You know it’s not like no jump up thing, smooth landing. So it says a lot about him as a pilot, his experience and how he was able to handle the situation mentally certainly must be commended. Mr.Grange was the most injured of all of them. Mr.Castaneda I think got several stabwounds most of which were superficial, no major arteries or organ was damaged and then Mr.Brown likewise I think he got a stab wound I think to the back I think one by the ribcage I think that one was a bit in a danger area but again the doctors said he was okay and I think by now he has been released from the hospital so they’re all doing well and we’re grateful for that.”