SOLDIER WITNESSED POLICE EXCUTE 18YO

A Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) soldier on Monday testified that he witnessed the execution style killing of an 18 year old boy by two members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) in 2007.

The court was told that seven other members of the JDF also witnessed the incident along Darling Street in downtown Kingston.

The JDF corporal was giving testimony on Monday afternoon at the trial of ex-policeman Mark Russell before the Home Circuit Court.

Mr. Russell, who was extradited from the United States in 2012 after he fled Jamaica, is on trial for the murder of Ravin Thompson.

Thompson was shot during a cross-fire between members of a police/military team and gunmen in Whitfield Town, St. Andrew in July 2007.

The JDF Corporal testified that the soldiers were fired on by men in the area and returned fire.

It was discovered that the teenager had been shot.

He told the court that they were transporting the injured boy to the Kingston Public Hospital when Mr. Russell and another policeman, Morris Lee, stopped the convoy along Darling Street.

The JDF soldier told the jury that before they arrived on Darling Street, the aunt of the injured boy, who was accompanying him to the hospital, was removed from the vehicle by the policemen along Maxfield Avenue.

He said the injured boy was taken from the vehicle along Darling Street, placed on the sidewalk and shot three times by the cops.

This was reportedly done in full view of seven members of the JDF.

The JDF corporal is to continue his testimony on Tuesday.

Prosecutors say they intend to call two other member of the JDF who were at the scene.

The other four soldiers have since resigned.

The two cops implicated in the teen’s killing fled Jamaica after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) ruled in 2008 that they be charged.

Morris Lee remains at large.