POLICE ROUND UP 37 PEOPLE IN DENHAM TOWN AFTER POLICE WAS SHOT IN THE NECK

Police arrest 37 after shooting of cop in Denham Town

THE security forces yesterday arrested 37 people during operations in Hannah Town, Golden Heights and Denham Town in Kingston’s west end.The operations, carried out shortly after Constable Akeem McLean was shot and injured in Denham Town, also saw the seizure of assorted rounds of ammunition by the police. In addition, a motorcycle and 480 cigarettes, believed to be part of the illegal trade, were seized during the joint police/military security operations.

Police said 35 of the people were arrested on suspicion of various crimes in the Kingston Western Police Division, while the other two were arrested and charged in connection to the ammunition seizure.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Ronald Anderson of Mobile Reserve told the Jamaica Observer that the items were seized an hour after McLean was shot in the left side of his neck in the vicinity of Regent Street and Golden Heights, Denham Town.

McLean, said the police, was a part of a team responding to reports of explosions in the Race Course area about 2:10 am. Upon reaching the Metcalf Remand Centre, the officers noticed men carrying out suspicious activities but when they alighted from their vehicles to investigate, they were shot at. The gunfire was returned and the men fled.

Anderson said McLean who was wearing a ballistic vest, was shot during the exchange. “The vest actually cushioned the impact of the bullet but the fragments from the bullet actually inflicted the wound to his neck,” the assistant commissioner said, adding that he was taken to the Kingston Public Hospital where he was admitted in stable condition.

The senior cop, meanwhile, has urged residents to support the police’s effort by providing information to 119 or the local police station.

“This is the only way we can keep the community safe and we will remain a stabilising force there,” he said.
Superintendent of Police Howard Chambers of the Kingston West Division, meanwhile, made an appeal to members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force to be aware of their surroundings.

In another incident on Tuesday, two men were fatally shot by the police in a section of Arnett Gardens called Zimbabwe. Two guns — a rifle and a handgun — were seized following that shooting, police said.

The two men remained unidentified up to yesterday.

According to the police, a team was on patrol in the vicinity of Paradise Grove when the officers were greeted with gunfire. The lawmen returned fire and the men were shot.

Chambers said it was the third attack on members of the police force in that area of the city in the past two weeks.