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Mandeville doc’s alleged killer poisoned in NY?

Published:Monday | October 7, 2019 | 12:09 AMCorey Robinson/Staff Reporter

Police sleuths spent much of last week trying to verify reports that a Jamaican man who reportedly escaped from a police truck while en route to a murder trial in 2013 was killed in a New York City apartment last Saturday.

Roger Broderick was named a person of interest in the killing of Mandeville radiologist Dr Phil Chamberlain, who was found with multiple stab wounds at his office in 2012.

Police arrested Broderick a year later in Dunrobin, St Andrew, and he was denied bail when he appeared in court to answer to the charges.

On one of his subsequent trips to court, the police truck transporting him stopped in Porus, Manchester, and Broderick reportedly escaped despite being handcuffed. He had not been seen or heard from since.

Last week, however, reports surfaced on social media that Broderick had been poisoned inside a New York City apartment.

When Broderick escaped, he was reportedly sported long hair, but one of the reports featured a picture of a dead man with low-cut hair lying on a bed with a white substance inside the nostrils.

There were no visible signs of blood in the photo despite allegations from overseas sources that Broderick may have also been shot and stabbed.

Deputy Superintendent Christopher Brown from Area Three – which consists of the Manchester, Clarendon and St Elizabeth police divisions – last week said that while he was aware of the reports surrounding Broderick’s possible death, he could not confirm them.

He said local investigators were partnering with cops in New York to determine, through forensic evidence, whether it was indeed Broderick.

“We have been informed about it, but we are still making checks with our overseas counterparts. As you know, that is a process, and we have not yet been able to make any conclusions,” said Brown.

“With all those conflicting reports, we are not able to say anything,” he stressed, noting that Broderick may have been using an alias on the run.

Apart from the murder of Chamberlain, Brown could not say if Broderick was wanted for any other crimes locally.

corey.robinson@gleanerjm.com