TIVOLI GARDENS INQUIRY: Painful - 67-year-old Joan McCarth, Elderly witness breaks down in tears recounting the killing of her grandnephew and son-in-law by policemen whom she said wrapped their bodies in bed linen to take them out of her house......The only weapon found was a kitchen knife, says witness

AN elderly woman yesterday gave emotional evidence in the Tivoli inquiry, recounting the killing of her grandnephew and son-in-law by policemen whom she said wrapped their bodies in bed linen to take them out of her house.

Witness on the stand in Tivoli inquiry

"They slaughter them like a lamb to the slaughter. No one could believe that they would kill them because they didn't react. They were just so scared. They were just so nervous. Oh God," 67-year-old Joan McCarthy, her eyes red and filled with tears when questioned by attorney Michael Lorne (representing the Office of the Public Defender).

"I didn't have a gunman in my house. I can swear for Andre Smith that he was not a gunman. They don't go anywhere. No matter how close the community centre is, they don't go over there," she added.

Earlier in McCarthy's evidence-in-chief, commission chairman Sir David Simmons had to adjourn the sitting for approximately 20 minutes to allow her to compose herself as she broke down crying.

The reaction in the room at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston suggested that onlookers, too, welcomed the break, after hearing McCarthy's grief-filled account of the killings that occurred on May 24, 2010, the day police and soldiers entered Tivoli Gardens amid gunfire to capture then Tivoli Gardens don Christopher 'Dudus' Coke and restore law and order to the barricaded West Kingston community.

McCarthy's grandnephew Andre Smith and son-in-law Dwayne Edwards -- both in their 20s -- were among the 75 people, including a policeman and a soldier, who died on that fateful day that captured international attention. more