Headlines:
| Police Commissioner to receive report on police shooting |
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| Friday, 09 January 2009 | |
 Commissioner of Police Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin is to
receive a preliminary report on Friday on Wednesday night's botched police
operation in which a 10-month-old boy, a Corporal and two other men were shot. Several questions have been raised about the shooting which took place on the Exchange/Lodge area of Ocho Rios in St. Ann. Police personnel claimed they were fired on by occupants of a car however, reports later surfaced that no guns were found in the vehicle or on any of the passengers. Head of the St. Ann Police Superintendent Patricia White said the Bureau of Special Investigation (BSI) is to present its initial findings to Rear Admiral Lewin Friday afternoon. "The investigation so far is that the shooting incident took place resulted from a police response to an earlier incident in Gayle. So far a BSI team headed by ACP Gauze are on the ground collecting all the statements and evidence as related to the incident and should submit a report to the Commissioner as to his preliminary findings," said Superintendent White. It is reported that the police responded to a call that several men travelling in a grey Nissan Sunny station wagon had carried out a robbery in Gayle. A car fitting the description given to the police was spotted on the Lodge main road and the driver was signalled to stop. The police alleged that they came under heavy gunfire from the occupants of the car and fired back. When the shooting subsided, it was discovered that a 10-month-old baby who was in the vehicle had been shot in the arm. Two other men who were in the car were also shot. A police Corporal who was a member of the team that conducted the operation was also shot in the head and arm. His condition is considered serious. The baby has been transferred to the Bustamante Hospital for Children in Kingston, while the two other men, remain hospitalised and listed in serious but stable condition. |