BEECHER TOWN, St Ann – When 46-year-old police sergeant Wayne Henriques was called in off his day-off to work Sunday, he was a bit hesitant because he was celebrating his 17th wedding anniversary and had promised to spend the time with his wife and children.Henriques’ family said the police force was the only job he knew, having spent the last 27 years policing mainly Kingston and St Andrew and that his love for the job and country caused him to report to work Sunday. Henriques was assigned to the Motorised Patrol Division at Elleston Road and was among a police team who responded to a stranded female motorist along Mountain View Avenue Sunday night.The police team reportedly came under heavy and sustained gunfire and was reportedly pinned down near the Excelsior High School by gunmen in a fierce firefight.Henriques and another cop were killed while six others received gunshot wounds and were admitted to hospital as security forces took on brazen gunmen in separate parts of the capital city.Yesterday, a cloud of darkness hung over Henriques’ house here in Beecher Town, St Ann, where his mother and other relatives reside. Pieces of black cloth hung on the gate and along the driveway to the house, eerie evidence that something had gone terribly wrong.“I can’t explain it, I’m hurt; I can’t believe that he’s gone; he was such a nice person, he was fun-loving, kind, jovial, hard-working, he was everything to me,” mother of the slain policeman, Daisy Henriques told the Observer. “He was only doing his job. I just can’t explain it, he who feels it, knows it.”Henriques’ relatives said he was in the Beecher Town community last weekend where he attended a funeral and visited with relatives and friends. The entire community was shocked at his death, describing it as untimely and gruesome.“We had no idea that he would be next, we didn’t know he would die at the hands of criminals,” another relative said.Henriques’ brother, Devon, said the two had spoken Sunday morning and Henriques told him he was called in to work, but didn’t want his mother to know.“He said I shouldn’t tell her because he didn’t want her to worry. He loved his job, he was dedicated to the force and that’s why he went to work on his wedding anniversary when he should have been at home,” the heart-broken Devon explained.He said the family was traumatised by the tragic circumstances, describing the current outbreak of violence in the Corporate Area and St Catherine as senseless.Superintendent of police assigned to Area II HQ, Patricia Coulbourne-White, who was among police in the parish who visited the family, said she was concerned about the level of lawlessness in the country.“Every citizen must rise up and send a message to the criminals that we will not accept criminality,” Coulbourne-White said.Sergeant Debbie Bowen, another of Henriques’ colleague who worked with him 20 years ago at the Central Police in Kingston, was saddened by Henriques’ tragic death, saying: “To know that I know him for so long and to just hear about it is really sad, it’s really devastating.”Henriques is survived by his wife, mother, four children, five siblings and other relatives. (Jamaica Observer)
