DETECTIVES at the Central Police Station in downtown Kingston have confirmed that an investigation has been launched into an incident in which it is alleged that a man threw a stone through a kitchen window of Gordon House early Thursday morning.
A police source said that he could not confirm whether or not there was an attempt to break into the kitchen, or malicious destruction, but said that the police were sticking with malicious destruction for now.
“We are investigating the incident and we should be able to make a statement on the matter by Monday,” the source said.
However, some members of staff at the Parliament building appeared more convinced that it was an attempted break-in.
According to one staff member, they turned up for work in the morning to see the building cordoned off and the police conducting their investigations.
The staff member insisted that information available from multiple CCTV cameras around the building confirmed that at about 4:00 am a man threw a stone through a window on the Beeston Street side of the building, leading to the kitchen warehouse, in an attempt to break into the building.
However, he said that the man fled after it became evident that he would have to smash more than one window to get to where the food is stored.
“There was one person on the camera, a man, and the stone was thrown through the window overlooking where the canteen food is kept,” one source said.
In 1998, arsonists tossed home-made bombs into Gordon House in the early hours of the morning. Graffiti painted in red across the wall said ‘Lazarus, Lazarus, Lazarus enough’. Hours later, two more Molotov cocktails were found in a garden on Duke Street, across from the building.
A firebombing occurred on the weekend of September 15-16, 2001, which left windows shattered and a hole in the pavement just outside the building.
However, since then security at Gordon House, the seat of Jamaica’s Parliament, has been significantly increased, with police posts and metal detectors at the entrances, and CCTV cameras on every floor, inside and outside the building.
