Human rights lobby Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) has expressed satisfaction with the recent verdict of the jury in the inquest into the death of Kevin Foster that former police constable Kadia Warren be charged with manslaughter.

Foster, an 18-year-old janitor, was travelling from St Elizabeth to Kingston on September 5, 2005, with two other relatives in a car. While on the Spur Tree Hill main road, two policemen on foot signalled the vehicle to stop.

Evidence was led during the Coroner's Inquest that the car was moving fast but slowed when the police gave the signal to stop. The inquest was further told that after the vehicle slowed, the police fired a shot that blew out the front right tyre. The driver subsequently sped off to the Mandeville Police Station.

Fired in self-defence

There, it was discovered that Foster, who was sitting in the back seat of the car, had been shot. He was pronounced dead at hospital.

The police's version of the incident claimed that after they signalled the car to stop, it drove towards them and the decision to fire was in self-defence.

The jury, having heard all the evidence, ruled that Warren be charged with manslaughter.

He was charged and released on $300,000 bail. He is to surrender his travel documents to the court. He appears in the Manchester Circuit Court on October 14, 2013.

JFJ says it is pleased that Foster's family has got some small measure of justice with the verdict.

"Given the more than eight years that the case has taken to reach to this point, JFJ fervently hopes that it will be thoroughly, effectively, and expeditiously prosecuted to allow some closure for Foster's family," the group said.