Noel Thompson, Freelance Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

The detective corporal who was shot and injured by another policeman in St Elizabeth on Friday is still recuperating at an undisclosed hospital. The police are still withholding his name for security reasons.

A police source told The Gleaner yesterday that the detective was a hardcore crime fighter who did not find favour with some persons.

"He had been threatened on several occasions in the past, so it would be unwise to disclose his identify or the hospital where he is admitted, as persons may use the opportunity to do wrong," said the officer.

The detective corporal, said to be in his early 40s and attached to the Santa Cruz Criminal Investigations Branch (CIB), was mistakenly shot by an off duty policeman as he chased one of two wanted men inside a restaurant in Santa Cruz.

Taken off duty

Yesterday, a senior officer in Westmoreland informed The Gleaner that the officer at the centre of the shooting controversy has been taken off frontline duty.

"The policy of the force is that once an officer is involved in a controversial shooting, he or she is taken off frontline duty, pending administrative outcome," said the officer.

While the injured cop recuperates in hospital, his colleague, who is assigned to the Westmoreland Division, will have to await the outcome of investigations by the Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI) before his fate is known.

Ran into the restaurant

According to Corporal Sophia Daley, the Constabulary Commu-nications Network (CCN) liaison officer for St Elizabeth, about 8:45 p.m. Friday, two men wanted by the St Elizabeth police on sexually-related offences were spotted by a police party outside a restaurant along Main Street in St Elizabeth.

While the police were in the process of accosting the men, one of them ran inside the restaurant.

The detective corporal, who was wearing plain clothes and was apparently without an identifying vest, gave chase when the off-duty cop allegedly used his licensed firearm to shoot in his direction.

One bullet pierced a tam the officer was wearing, while another lodged in his shoulder.

During the melee, the wanted man was prevented from leaving the building as it only has a single entry and exit door. He and his crony were arrested and charged with abduction and rape.

They are Richard Oliver, 22, of Palmers Cross, Clarendon and Devon Green, 20, of Phanti Land, St Elizabeth. The rape incident occurred in Braes River, St Elizabeth on July 11 this year.