WOMAN SHOT DURING POLICE SHOOT OUT

A woman is battling for life after she was shot, reportedly during a police operation in Sandy Bay, Clarendon on Saturday night.

Marcia Thomas, a 50 year old vendor, was shot in the head, and has reportedly lost sight in one of her eyes.

Her husband, Lenworth Thomas, is pleading for justice.

Mr. Thomas said he was driving a bus from Kingston to May Pen, Clarendon accompanied by his wife, their two children and a family friend.

Mr. Thomas said, minutes to 11 o’clock, when they had reached Sandy Bay, the police were conducting a search of a taxi with three men aboard. He said the officers began firing gunshots and then he noticed his wife had been injured.

The woman will now have to see a bone and eye specialist. According the Mr. Thomas, doctors have said fragments of the bullet are still on her brain.

In response to the incident, Inspector Dahlia Garrick of the Jamaica Constabulary Force Corporate Communications Unit said the police were engaged in an operation when a shootout ensued between themselves and men in a taxi.

According to Inspector Garrick, a car was signalled to stop and the driver complied. However, two men alighted the vehicle and began shooting at the police. The police returned the attack.

“When the shooting subsided, a passenger from a passing motorcar turned up with gunshot injuries. At this point, we’re unable to say whose firearm that bullet came from and that is now the subject of an investigation,” said Garrick.

The men who engaged the police in the shootout escaped.

INDECOM (Independent Commission of Investigations) is investigating the incident.