Rasbert Turner, Gleaner WriterSpanish Town, St. Catherine:
ANOTHER POLICEMAN has been cut down as gunmen struck at a restaurant in Spanish Town on Friday night. Reports reaching The Sunday Gleaner are that Detective Sergeant Desmond Carter, 45, of the narcotics division, was buying refreshments along Highfield Road in Ensom City about 11:45 p.m when he was approached by three men armed with guns.
Reports are that the sergeant was repeatedly shot by the three men who relieved him of his Ruger pistol before fleeing the scene on foot. This brings the total number of police killed since the start of the year to six.
As news of his death spread, several of his colleagues converged on the scene, where they found four warheads and five 9mm spent shells. They expressed grief at the policeman's untimely death.
FATAL SHOOTING
According to his wife Verona, about midnight she called her husband's number and received no answer. She found this strange, and started to worry. A short time after, she received a call from the police, saying that her husband had been shot. She went to the scene where she realised that it had been a fatal shooting.
Commissioner of Police Lucius Thomas conveyed his condolences to the family and friends of Sgt. Carter. "This is further evidence that although homicide rates are down by 22 per cent compared to last year, the challenges are still great and that these vile criminals will go to any lengths to perpetrate their wrongs," he said.
Meanwhile, also in Spanish Town, one man is now nursing gunshot wounds after he was shot several times by a group of gunmen during a robbery on Friday. Reports are that about 2 p.m, a group of armed men went to a business place along Young Street in Spanish Town where they approached the cashier and demanded money.
The men then fired several shots, hitting a male customer in the upper body before escaping with about $50,000. The police are investigating.
