Marguerita Maloney (right) with a friend before the verdict was announced. This scene changed dramatically after the verdict was announced as Marguerita fell to the ground and wailed.
Coroner’s verdict into death of I’Akobi Maloney: Death by misadventure
4/25/2009
TO screams of “Murderer”, “You kill my son”, “Dis is just de beginning”, was how the Coroner’s verdict of “death by misadventure” was greeted yesterday by Marguerita Maloney, mother of I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney, and other relatives and friends.
It was minutes before 5 o’clock when Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris delivered her verdict at the Coroner’s Court, Roebuck Street, St. Michael, packed with Maloney’s relatives and friends including his mother and brother, Mandela.
After the Coroner left the courtroom and returned to her chambers, Maloney’s mother and others re-joined the Rastafarian brethren in the courtyard which included his father, David. Dozens had earlier lined the courtyard but had to remain outside during the verdict for lack of space.
Pointing and calling the names of the two officers who were first on the scene at Landlock, St. Lucy, where the 23-year-old chemical engineer died on June 17, 2008, Marguerita told Sergeant Wingrove Headley and Police Constable Wendell Walkes... “De inquest end, but dis is just de beginning. De Rasta brethren gine get you.”
Dressed in white, in stark contrast to the others who wore red shirts and black pants, Marguerita fell to the ground and wailed her son’s name, as well as those of Sojourner Truth, Marcus Garvey, and Malcolm X and the Rastafarian community.
She was eventually lifted up and left with the group, some of whom carried flags and placards.
