An ex-cop who has been avoiding arrest for 10 years after fleeing the island to the United States, on Wednesday appeared in court locally and was remanded in police custody on charges of attempted murder and robbery.
Mwando Lloyd Pryce appeared in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court after being charged by detectives attached to the Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI).
In April of this year, the Jamaican police offered $500,000 reward for anyone with information leading to the capture of Pryce who was deported from the US in March of this year but had been mysteriously released from the custody of the police locally.
At Pryce’s bail hearing on Wednesday, it was revealed that he had turned himself over to police that same morning, and was charged and taken to court.
During the hearing, detectives from the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) opposed bail on the grounds that the ex-cop was a flight risk.
But Pryce’s attorney countered that his client was never arrested at the airport on arrival in Jamaica, and he has been at home since then.
The bail hearing is to continue on December 23 when the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) is expected to give its position on the matter of bail.
Allegations are that in July of 2009, Pryce, then a police constable, was among a group of lawmen and civilians who carried out a robbery at a house in Stony Hill, St Andrew.
However, a dispute allegedly developed over the sharing of funds from the heist, and a civilian ended up being shot several times in the upper body by the cops and was dumped in a gully. However, he survived the ordeal.
The cops, including Pryce, were later pointed out on an identification parade. Two other officers who were charged with attempted murder and wounding with intent were freed of the charges two years ago.
In August 2009, Pryce was admitted to the US legally with a non-immigrant visa, with authorization to remain in that country until February 7, 2010.
He failed to depart the US as required, and in August 2015, Interpol issued a Red Notice for Pryce for the aforementioned crimes that were allegedly committed while he was a police constable in Jamaica.
In August 2017, ERO Headquarters in Washington DC advised ERO New York that Pryce may be living in the New York City metropolitan area. On November 22, 2017, he was arrested in the Bronx, New York, by ERO deportation officers, assisted by ERO New York Special Response Team (SRT) operators, on immigration charges. In September 2018, Pryce was ordered removed from the US by an immigration judge.
On March 12, 2019, an appeal of that decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) was dismissed, paving the way for his removal to Jamaica.