THE Jamaica Observer has been given critical information that one of three men who were standing along Wellington Street in Denham Town, West Kingston shot and killed Police Constable Lynden Barrett last Tuesday night.
An impeccable source, who revealed that he was at the scene, also brushed aside claims by people of the area that the policeman was shot by his colleagues.
Constable Barrett is known to frequent the area and is well known by residents, many of whom he had developed close relations with.
“Indian (as Constable Barrett is known) was in the area to drop off a package to a woman when he saw three men standing on a corner. He knew all three of them, and from a short distance away he saw a bulge in the side of one of them … the one that was wearing a mask,” the eyewitness said, beseeching the Sunday Observer that his identity be kept confidential.
“Indian walked up to the man with the bulge, lifted his shirt and said: A wa you a do wid this ya gun ina you side….”
The cop, according to the eyewitness, tried to disarm the gunmen and a struggle developed, resulting in Constable Barrett being shot in the upper body and head.
“The gunman and the two other men run off same time,” the eyewitness said. “Indian stumbled towards his car and collapsed. At the same time, a police team that was on patrol heard the shot and rushed to the area fast, fast, fast, so that’s how some of the people in the community say that its the police who shoot him, but its not police who shoot him … is the boy wearing the mask,” the eyewitness said.
The Police High Command maintained that the killing was done by gunmen, with Commissioner Dr Carl Williams, under fire for rating himself highly in the fight to reduce crime, insisting that Constable Barrett was not killed by friendly fire.
“I know for sure that the criminals are responsible for it,” Dr Williams said last week.
“We are going to find them and bring them to justice. We checked it out and they (killers) were not police. I know for sure that the criminals are responsible,” he said.
Yesterday, head of the Criminal Investigation Branch, Assistant Commissioner of Police Ealan Powell told the Sunday Observer that the police had received similar information to that given to this tabloid.
“That’s the information that we received too that three men were involved, and we have even got three names,” Powell stated.
“He had gone into Denham Town to check somebody and had the altercation with the three men, so this talk by the residents that he was killed by police is nonsense. There was a police team in Denham Town at the time that had stopped near to a lotto shop and heard the gunshots. They rushed to the scene and found him on the ground, alive and bleeding. It was when they took him to the hospital (Kingston Public) that he was pronounced dead,” Powell said, emphasising that law enforcers were continuing their search for the three men.
Barrett’s family and other members of the constabulary force were comforted by the Acting Minister of National Security Phillip Paulwell and Member of Parliament for Western Kingston Desmond McKenzie, as they gathered last Wednesday at the Denham Town Police Station following the incident.
The death of Constable Barrett followed that of another Constable, Crystal Thomas, who, like Barrett was based at the Denham Town Police Station.
She was murdered a week before after she was taken from a Toyota Coaster minibus by gunmen, who hijacked the vehicle and shot her several times.
Members of the police force joined hands in prayer at the station last week following the double tragedy. The station has over the years lost several members of its staff to violent action by gunmen.
It is in the police record books that the station has been shot up by gunmen on many occasions, even while then Commissioner of Police Trevor MacMillan, now deceased, went on a tour there in 1994.
Police sources said at the time that Macmillan was forced to hide under a desk for several hours, as men with high-powered weapons, believed to be from the nearby Tivoli Gardens, pelted the building with bullets.
He knew all three of them, and from a short distance away he saw a bulge in the side of one of them … the one that was wearing a mask,” the eyewitness said
If one of the men was wearing a mask, how would the policeman be able to identify (knew) who he was? Why would an individual be standing on the street wearing a mask, unless they were about to launch an attack on someone?
The sad reality is the people in the immediate area knew who these individuals are and I would be surprised if all three of them live right there in that community….maybe the reason the people are claiming it was the police that shot their own.
I have gone to more than one inner city communities to visit females and these folks know every time I came there. One “badman” warn me not come back there unless I abide by a certain rule (didn’t know better).
all these reports really tek people fi idiots. Cont cover up or go find three wanted men that u guys been looking for quite some time and kill them and just state that they were all responsible for the killing of the police officer.
and tell me sumtin; if three a dem a par and one had gun, and the police went ahead and wrestle with the one that had the gun and the same one that he was wrestling with shot the police,
HOW CAN ALL THREE BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE KILLING?