Residents protest fatal police shooting in Thompson Pen

Angry residents of Thompson Pen, St Catherine, on Thursday protested the fatal shooting of 37-year-old fisherman Demoy Campbell during a police operation.

They describing the incident as a “cold-blooded murder” allegedly carried out by members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) attached to the St Catherine North Police Division.

According to police reports, officers were conducting targeted operations in search of wanted men in Thompson Pen about 7 a.m. when they came under fire from men in a yard. The police said they returned the gunfire and, after the shooting subsided, Campbell was found wounded. He was taken to Spanish Town Hospital, where he later died.

The police described Campbell as a person of interest in relation to several incidents, including shootings, and who had allegedly evaded lawmen on previous occasions. Police further reported that a pistol containing live rounds was recovered at the scene.

However, Campbell’s grieving mother and several residents, some of whom claimed to be eyewitnesses, told The Gleaner a markedly different account.

“I was standing and I see a whole heap a police a come in and mi call mi son and seh mi see whole heap a police,” said Marcia Stewart, the mother of the deceased.

Stewart, a mother of eight adult children, two of whom are now deceased, said she called her son and sent several voice messages to him. She said it was while he answered the phone that she heard gunshots.

“When him answer, mi hear one whole heap of shot and mi scream out and say, ‘Jesus!’, and mi see whole heap of people a run come and sey them kill ‘Dada’,” she said, using the alias by which Campbell was known.

Stewart denied that her son was ever wanted by the police, describing him as a peaceful person whom she said she would miss. She acknowledged, however, that he had been detained and processed by the police last year, but was released shortly afterwards.

She further claimed that residents begged officers not to kill him while he pleaded for his life, but that police chased them away.

Campbell’s girlfriend, who asked not to be named, said they were both in bed when they heard the door being kicked in. She said she saw police officers who ordered her to leave the house.

She said that before she had gone very far, she heard a barrage of gunshots and realised her boyfriend was the victim.

According to her, she fled the area out of fear that the police would kill her as well. She maintained that Campbell was in his underwear at the time and was unarmed.

Several residents also alleged that after the shooting had stopped, officers retrieved a red bag from one of the police vehicles, took it to the scene, and then fired additional shots.

“They came with the red bag and we hear three shots, and then they came back through the lane with the red bag and put it in one of the jeep,” said one resident, who claimed to have witnessed the incident.

RESIDENTS FEARFUL

Residents expressed fear that the police might unjustly target the community because of their statements about the killing, particularly amid claims that officers are searching for four additional men from the area.

Another resident, who lives near to Campbell’s home, told The Gleaner that he was inside his residence at the time of the shooting and was afraid to come out. He said, however, that he was able to observe events through a crevice in the structure.

“Mi hear when they asked his girlfriend to leave and then mi hear the youth a bawl fi murder and shouting, ‘Mi nuh do nothing’, and mi hear shots and mi nuh hear him again,” he said.

The resident further claimed that he overheard one of the officers at the scene assuring others that he had “picked up everything”.

The Independent Commission of Investigations has since launched a probe into the fatal shooting. The JCF’s Inspectorate is also conducting an investigation.

ruddy.mathison@gleanerjm.com