Corporal Errol Thompson in a happy mood at a public event.
Claude Mills, Staff Reporter
A TRAGIC case of "friendly fire" claimed the life of a young police Constable, Errol Thompson, of the Hunts Bay Police Station. He was fatally shot by colleagues during an operation in Browns Lane, Kingston 13, yesterday morning.
Constable Thompson, affectionately called "Mark" by friends, was 22 years old, just two weeks shy of his 23rd birthday on July 6.
Reports from Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) are that at about 2 a.m., a team of policemen was on operation in the Browns Lane area of Kingston 13, responding to reports that men were firing shots in the community.
Members of the party were combing the community in search of the men when they reportedly came under a heavy barrage of gunfire from men with high-powered weapons. They consequently sought assistance from Police Control Centre and another team of lawmen was sent to the area to assist.
On the arrival of the reinforcement party, three armed men dressed in plainclothes were seen emerging from a darkened lane and they were reportedly fired on by members of the party. One of the men was hit and it was subsequently discovered that the three men coming out of the lane were in fact policemen, who were among the original party sent to the area.
The injured man was taken to the Kingston Public Hospital where he was pronounced dead. The firearms of the policemen involved in the shooting have been seized and the Bureau of Special Investigation has commenced a probe into the accident.
Accidental shootings or so-called 'friendly fire' has often claimed the lives of members of the security forces. Statistics were unavailable up to press time on the number of accidental shootings over the last five years.
Recently, a policeman stationed in rural Jamaica accidentally shot his colleague while cleaning his gun.
In December 1998, in Malvern, St. Elizabeth two policemen were shot, one fatally, after going to investigate a report of a prowler at premises in the town.
In 1998 as well, Judah Gardner, a JDF soldier was killed during a joint police/military operation in downtown Kingston, when a sub machine gun being carried by a colleague went off, killing him.
Yesterday Constable Thompson's 27-year-old live-in lover Michelle Brown told The Gleaner that he "was caring,
loving and generous. We were hoping to have a child together, he wanted a baby. 'Mark' always wanted to get married but I was the one who kept putting it off, 'cause I wanted to get a house first. When he proposed, I thought he was joking, but I soon realised just how serious he was. He was very mature for his age."
"I just knew something was wrong when the policemen came by my house at 4 this morning. I suspected it even before they told me," she said. Her grief is somewhat softened by the likelihood that she may be pregnant for her deceased lover. "The first tests came back positive but I have to do some more tests first to be sure," Ms. Brown said.
Meanwhile, the community of Peddlars Lane, Mount Salem, is in a state of shock and disbelief at news that one of their most beloved sons is dead. Constable Thompson was the youngest child for his parents, Estreana Agatha Clarke and Winston Thompson, and is survived by three brothers and four sisters.
"Everyone loved Mark. The whole community is now crying out for 'Gatta's Mark as everybody called him. He was a happy-go-lucky kind of person, quiet, good disposition and a very good heart. Words cannot express what he meant to us," his elder sister Marilyn Lawrence said.
Constable Thompson attended the Herbert Morrison Compre-hensive High School, graduating in 1995, before enlisting in the police force on November 11, 1996.
