Hanover residents protest police killings

WESTERN BUREAU:

Hanover was on edge on Monday morning as residents of Johnson Town staged a fiery protest along the heavily trafficked Montego Bay to Negril corridor, including at the Riley Bridge entrance to Lucea, in response to the police-involved deaths of two local men last Wednesday.

The incident that sparked the unrest occurred when 21-year-old Jason ‘Biggs’ Brown and 29-year-old Nicholas ‘Nico’ Campbell, both from Johnson Town, were fatally shot during an alleged confrontation with members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) Area One Fugitive Apprehension Team (AFAT). The shooting, which occured about 5:35 p.m. along the Mosquito Cove main road, also resulted in the death of Clive ‘Greedy’ Lawrence, leader of the Katon Lane Defence Force gang, from Mount Salem, St James.

Superintendent of Police Carlos Russell, the operations officer for Area One, said a police team signalled a Toyota Voxy motor vehicle, with four men aboard, to stop.

While the driver complied, the occupants reportedly exited and began shooting at the officers.

“During a running gun battle, three of the gunmen were shot and injured and two firearms retrieved from them,” Russell said, adding that the three men were later pronounced dead at hospital.

However, residents of Johnson Town vehemently dispute the police’s account of the events, accusing the officers of unjustifiably killing Brown and Campbell after they were ordered out of the vehicle.

“Mi nuh know nothing ‘bout de man from Montego Bay (Lawson) wa dem seh a gunman, but Biggs and Nico a nuh gunman,” said one irate resident. “If dem find di badman with gun and kill him, dat bad, but me coulda understand dat, ... but why kill di other man dem?”

CALL FOR GREATER ACCOUNTABILITY

Local residents claim the AFAT unit has been involved in several controversial shootings in the area, and while they do not condone violence, they are calling for greater accountability and oversight to ensure police actions are lawful.

One resident questioned whether the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) was effectively fulfilling its mandate to oversee police conduct, citing a recent shooting in the community. The resident alleged that while INDECOM officers visited the scene initially and promised to return, they never did.

“We don’t want it look like we supporting criminals because we are not. We just want to see that justice is being done. If we grow up around people and know they are not criminals, and dem they get killed by the police under questionable circumstances, we must ask questions,” one woman said to The Gleaner. “We want to support the police but we want to be sure that they are operating lawfully.”

Following the most recent shooting, a team from INDECOM visited the location.

While the fire on the Riley Bridge caused some amount of panic as flames sparkled against the backdrop of the early-morning haze, Janel Ricketts, the community relations officer at the National Works Agency’s Western Office, told The Gleaner that there was no significant damage to the structure.

“There was only superficial damage to the asphalt surface,” she said.

editorial@gleanerjm.com