Another cop killed

A POLICEMAN was shot dead yesterday morning - the fourth in 39 days - in Nannyville Gardens, off Mountain View Avenue, south-east St Andrew, in an alleged shoot-out in which a man identified only as "Sean", was killed also.

The police said an illegal .357 calibre Magnum revolver with 10 cartridges, were taken from the man's body.

The dead policeman was identified as Det. Cons. Robert Allen, 31, who worked at the nearby Stadium police station.

Yesterday some residents of Nannyville Gardens disputed the circumstances in which the policeman and the civilian were shot, claiming instead that Cons. Allen was shot dead by the police while they were shooting at the civilian.

Since April 27, gunmen and police and soldiers have clashed periodically in the lower section of Mountain View Avenue, but yesterday's shooting was not related to the previous shootings, residents say.

Yesterday's incident happened several hundred metres north of the Mountain View Ave-nue/Jacques Road trouble spot.

The police say that Det. Cons. Allen and two colleagues went to Nannyville Gardens on enquiries about 8.30 a.m. and were challenged by a man who was seen acting suspiciously on Ashanti Pathway.

The man pulled a gun and shot the plainclothed policeman in the chest, and the other two policemen fired back, killing the man who was later identified only as Sean, the police said.

But some residents of the area who said they saw what happened, said Cons. Allen was killed by one of his colleagues.

Four elderly women who were part of a citizens' chorus in the community, protesting both deaths, denied that there had been any shoot-out, as the police had claimed.

"No, no, a lie them a tell, there was no shoot-out. The police shoot the next police and then shoot and kill Sean," the women said, repeating each other.

They said Sean was shot in the back of the head. They showed reporters body tissue -- which they said was Sean's -- in a pool of blood on Ashanti Pathway. About 15 feet away there was another pool of blood where they said Det. Cons. Allen fell.

Citizens said a member of the police party entered the area and started firing wildly and when he realised that he had shot his colleague accidentally, he turned the gun on Sean.

After the scores of police and soldiers left Nannyville, the residents, toting placards, went onto Mountain View Avenue and attempted to block a section of the busy thoroughfare. At one stage they even locked the main gate leading into the Nannyville Gardens.

Heavily armed police and soldiers fired shots into the air to disperse the irate citizens who were demanding "justice".

Derrick Smith, Opposition JLP spokesman on national security, yesterday called on the Police High Command to speedily investigate the circumstances in which Det. Cons. Allen lost his life.

"His death brings to four the number of police whose lives have been snuffed out by the gun, in quick succession. In spite of the truama inevitably associated with such tragedies, the police must not allow the killings to shake their confidence. They must remain unwaveringly focused as they move to rid society of criminal elements," said Mr. Smith.

Deputy Commissioner Owen Clunie, head of the Bureau of Special Investigation, which is probing the killings, told The Gleaner his investigators were having difficulty getting into the community to collect statements.

"The environment is hostile now and I am not taking any chances sending my investigators in there. We just have to wait until the tempers cool. But we are asking persons who saw what happened to come forward and assist us with the investigations," DCP Clunie said.

K.D. Knight, National Security and Justice Minister, who is out of the country, is off sent a message of support to the police.

He said he understood the anger they must feel at what he said was the continuous attack on their colleagues, but he urged that they maintain "a strategic, systematic and professional resistance" to any attempt to undermine their roles as law officers.

On April 14 Det. Sgt. Maurice Shirley of the Police Office of Professional Responsibility was killed in a bar at Strathmore Gardens, near Spanish Town, St. Catherine; on April 27 Cpl. Roland Layne of the Constabulary Communication network was shot dead on Mountain View Avenue while he was a passenger in a car which was taking him on assignment to the Mountain View Avenue/Jacques Road trouble spot. That night Inspector Glendon Hardy of the Commissioner's Office was shot dead on Seaview Avenue, near to his workplace.

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