KINGSTON – Another police report has been called into question less than three weeks after the police information arm was left with egg on its face when a private video recording contradicted its report about the circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting of a man in Buckfield, St Ann.Early Friday morning, the police claimed that they had engaged the gunmen who had killed eight people in Tredegar Park, St Catherine, and fatally shot two of the men in the section of the community known as Brooklyn.According to the police, the dead gunmen were identified as Kevin, otherwise called “Bilbo”, and Jerome Williams, otherwise called “Crab”, both were members of the Clansman gang, which operates in Spanish Town.But hours later, residents disputed the police reports and compounded this by identifying the two dead people.
Wrong ‘Crab’ The residents identified one of the victims as 15-year-old Derrick Anthony Bolton, otherwise called “Crabby”. Th e other victim was identified as Lemone Turner, otherwise called “Frenchman”.“Crabby is my son who is a dancer who stay in Brooklyn and practise him dancing, so me tell him not to come home until in the morning,” Geraldien Williams, his mother, told The Gleaner.“The police dem hold him and dem ask him what the people call him, and him say ‘Crabby’, and dem say a him shoot the people a Tredegar Park, and a so dem kill him. It was a case of mistaken identity,” Williams argued.Other residents were most upset that the police could have mistaken the young “Crabby” for the alleged gangster known as “Crab” who was recently released from state custody.“The police dem should a know say a nuh him name ‘Crab’, and dem should a never kill the youth,” an angry resident said.At press time Saturday night, head of the Major Investigation Task Force, Les Green, said he would not comment on whether the police had killed the wrong man in the incident they referred to as a shoot-out. He pointed The Gleaner to head of the St Catherine North Police, Superintendent Assan Thompson, and Granville Gause, head of the Bureau of Special Investigations. Neither of them could be reached for comment. Earlier, a policeman told The Gleaner that while there had been misidentification, the 15-year-old was among the group of gunmen who had invaded Tredegar Park.The matter was expected to be addressed at a media briefing by Green on Friday afternoon but that briefing did not take place. Media personnel had gathered at the Spanish Town Police Station expecting to be briefed by Green before midday, but were later told that they would be briefed by Thompson. A large detachment from the Jamaica Defence Force was also seen at the Spanish Town station preparing to be deployed in the troubled communities. The police later released the names of five alleged members of the Clansman gang and four members of the One Order gang wanted for questioning in connection with the killing of the eight people.
(Jamaica Gleaner)
