Police have a death in custody as a man committed apparent suicide in the Queen Street cell block.
The press asked the Commissioner to comment on the death of Gregory Bowen, who was a prisoner in police custody at the Queen Street Police Station. The Commissioner says that at this time it appears that Bowen hung himself over the holiday weekend. He added that there will be a formal investigation into this incident:
Chester Williams- Commissioner of Police
"The police reported that this morning, sometime after two, they made checks on a prisoner Gregorio Bowen who was detained pending charges of wounding. Upon doing so, he was found nude in the cell block, hanging from his pants. So apparently he took off his pants that he was wearing and hung himself on the gate of the cell block. He was removed, taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. I have tasked the professional standards branch as well as the officer commanding eastern division to launch an investigation to see if there was any negligence on the part of the officers working at the particular moment. We do have our cell block policies that speak to the fact that officers must make hourly checks on the prisoners. In situations where the prisoner is under the influence or demonstrates the potential for harming him or herself then checks must be made every half an hour. In this case Mr. Bowen was not drunk and was not one who displayed signs of wanting to injure himself and others and so the checks were made hourly. We have checked the diary at the station and it shows that the officers did make the hourly checks at the cell blocks. It would appear that it was after the 2 am check was made that he eventually did what he did. Nonetheless we are going to see what the investigation reveals at the end and then we will brief you more on it."
