Police Explains Response Time to Phillip Palma’s Body Discovery

Fitzroy Yearwood

Police are refuting a number of the claims being made by Espat. According to ASP Yearwood, police were in contact with a family member during the entire search. Yearwood contends that he was in contact with a family member while Espat was live on social media.

Reporter

“Reports are that police refused to join the search and when the body was found and police was contacted they still didn’t come until hours later and that when they did come they didn’t come prepared.”

ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, Communications Director, B.P.D.

“Well, I don’t know where you got your reports from, but as I mentioned, police were searching the John Smith Highway. They searched that area where his body was found on Friday. I don’t know who is trying to mislead the public. But, I can tell you, when I was contacted on Saturday there was a level of difficulty to get scenes of crime ready to go on that little remote island. We are not blaming anyone. We had to make sure we had all parties involved. This is not an area that is easily accessible and at the same time we needed to gather evidence that may have been left behind by his assailants. We did take a little time to prepare but I was in direct communication with a member of the family all this time, even when I saw a member of the public doing a live video I was communicating with that member of the family assuring  them that our officers were waiting to be deployed by the Coast Guard.”