Police on high alert

KINGSTON –  The police have now raised their threat level to extreme following the murders of three policemen in separate incidents since last week.The latest cop was killed on Monday night.The police high command said raising the threat level to extreme meant that the risk of attacks by criminals on police personnel and facilities was imminent.“Its intelligence and the actions of criminals over the last week indicate calculated assaults on police personnel as they continue to disrupt and displace criminal gangs across the island,” said the police high command.The high command said it was therefore imperative that all police personnel be on high alert at all times by taking extra security precautions to protect themselves and their colleagues.Police Commissioner Owen Ellington has also ordered that the Police Control Centre regularly broadcast security reminders to all police personnel to keep members alert.Twenty-two-year-old Special Constable James Lemmie became the ninth cop to be murdered since the start of the year.Lemmie, who was attached to the St Catherine North Police Division, was killed on Young Street in Spanish Town.The police have linked the death to an emerging gang comprising teenagers in St Catherine.The police said the 22-year-old special constable was walking on Young Street when he was accosted by three teens.A struggle reportedly developed as the teens tried to take his service pistol.They managed to take the firearm and then shot and killed the cop with his own weapon.Another policeman who reportedly saw the incident, engaged the boys.One reportedly ran away with the special constable’s gun and was chased.He was reportedly killed in a shoot-out with the cop. The weapon was recovered.The police said the dead teen was 17-year-old Radcliffe Forster of Ellerslie Penn Spanish Town.(Gleaner/Power 106 News)