Woman shot by cops still awaiting compensation

A senior citizen, who was awarded a little more than $3 million in compensation after being shot and injured by the police in 2006, is urging the relevant authorities to urgently hand over the money.

In 2024, a Supreme Court judge ruled that Majorie Vernon be compensated after being shot in both thighs in her house as the security forces searched for wanted men. The now 68-year-old Campbell Town, Central Kingston, resident, who operated a small cookshop before the incident said she has lost her independence and relies entirely on her children for support. Vernon was awarded $2.4 million at a rate of three per cent interest per annum from the date of service of the claim form to the date of judgement. Special damages in the sum of $54,220, at a rate of three per cent interest per annum from the date of the incident to the date of judgment were also awarded. The matter was heard between November 2020 and February 2021.

"I really want this money...in fact, mi need it because this incident set mi back. If God never bless mi with four children, I don't know how I would manage, especially the last one. A mi son wash and cook and do everything for me because mi life is not the same since," she told THE WEEKEND STAR. "Right now mi foot dem swell up and is because of the shot dem. When the time cold, mi go through it. Sometimes mi can't sit down properly because mi legs dem burn mi like pepper. I would want to get the money before I die."

Attorney-at-law Oraine Nelson, who represented Vernon, said they are waiting for the judgment to be signed by the court in order for the documents to be sent over to the attorney general's office for the funds to be released.

"If you get it (the signed judgment) to a judge within a day of the hearing, you can potentially get it back within a week or so. We didn't submit it within the day...we simply just wrote to them and ask them to let us have it and they wrote back indicated that they want the actual signed judgment. So we have filed the judgment and are awaiting for it to be signed. We have made checks on more than one occasion and it is still not yet signed," Nelson said.

On January 20, 2006, 32 police officers and 23 soldiers went to a tenement yard in search of two wanted men. The security forces reported that they were met with gunfire by one of the men and a shootout ensued. Vernon, then 47, and who lived in the other house at the address, was shot in her living room. Vernon, who walks with a slight limp, emphasised that she has been left traumatised by the incident.

"Mi feel pain a lot of times, and if a pot cover all drop, sometimes mi heart skip a beat. Sometimes mi and mi neighbours inna argument because mi nuh like hear when the children dem burst the fire cracker. Every little explosion frighten mi and if mi ever see a police or soldier mi get nervous," she said.