Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson, has urged members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) to use yesterday’s fatal shooting of two of its members to unite and remain resolute.
In a message tweeted by the JCF, the commissioner said the police will remain committed to their duty to Jamaicans and their members.
“We will continue to respond to and protect the people of Jamaica and we will not allow criminals to destroy the lives and livelihood of Jamaicans, as along as we are here as the Jamaica Constabulary Force” Anderson said.
“We will continue to show respect, obey the rule of law, and one thing is certain: we will continue to be that ‘force for good’,” he continued.
Twenty-six-year-old Detective Corporal Dane Biggs and Constable Decardo Hylton were killed during an attack in Horizon Park, St Catherine yesterday morning, as they, along with fellow members of the JCF, conducted an operation in the area. Superintendent Cleon Clunis and another policeman were also shot during the incident. They remain in hospital in critical condition. An M16 rifle was retrieved from the scene.
Later that afternoon, the man believed to be the killer, 39 year-old Damion Hamilton, a deportee, was killed in Cooreville Gardens, St Andrew, but not before injuring another policeman. A 9mm pistol was seized in the Cooreville Gardens incident.
A source said that Hamilton served in the United States Marines Corps and that he was deployed in the Gulf War. Hamilton had been living at the house on Queens Drive in Horizon Park, from which he allegedly launched his attack, for the past three years. He was recruited by an individual from the area to help fight a turf war, a source explained.
Anderson had vowed swift justice, stating the incident “is not going to cause us to step back.” However, he was quick to reject suggestions yesterday that the police on operation were ambushed, telling reporters “there is no indication of that.”
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