Noel Thompson, Sunday Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

SENIOR CRIME sleuths in Area Two are strategising their next move to bring two cop killers to justice, as investigations into the shooting death of Inspector Audley Smith in Oracabessa, St Mary, Thursday night, intensify.

Deputy Superintendent Robert White, in charge of crime for St Mary, has cut short his vacation to join in the investigations, while retired Superintendent Neville Warmington, who was once the commanding officer for St Mary, is also assisting with the probe.

"The investigations are going well and we are following some possible leads," said Superintendent Kelso Small, the crime chief for the Area Two Police Division. He said, however, that the police was appealing to the public to give any assistance they could to bring the murderers to justice.

He said information could be passed on to him by calling his cellular at 770-1760, DSP White at 816-2764, DSP Gladstone Ellis at 384-0000 and 994-2229, the Area Two Crime office at 975-4774, and Kingfish at 811 or 119.

"We are going to catch the criminals. We see Inspector Smith's murder as a direct attack on the authority of the country, and we believe his killers knew he was an officer and their sole intention was to kill him," Superintendent Small noted.

Sombre mood

Police personnel at the Oraca-bessa Police Station where Inspector Smith was in charge, were in a sombre mood when The Gleaner's Western Bureau news team visited on Friday.

Some cops, however, joked among themselves briefly to suppress their grief at the loss of a colleague, whom they described as their 'father figure'.

Inspector Smith's wife, Vivienne, when contacted at her St Catherine home yesterday, said she was too saddened to speak. She said, however, that they had been married since 1973 and had one son, Marlon, who was very close to his father.

noel.thompson@gleanerjm.com