ONE DAY after a family of seven in Alston, Clarendon, disarmed and chopped to death a gunman who had invaded their home, a group of men in Kingston, overpowered a gunman and rescued from him, a hand gun which they handed over to the police.
According to the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN), about 8:10 p.m. Saturday, a group of men were at the intersection of Delano and MacArthur avenues, when they were approached by a man armed with a handgun. The gunman demanded money from the men and one of them held on serial number EKA2040-01 with eight 9mm rounds, was seized. The man escaped.
On Friday, 47-year-old Delroy Edwards was killed in Alston when he entered a house by forcing open a window. He pulled a weapon from his waist band, a Colt .45 pistol and
pointed it at one of the occupants.
He was disarmed, chopped and beaten by the family members, made up of a mother and her six children, when the weapon failed to fire.
The intruder died from injuries at the Percy Junor hospital in Clarendon.
Commenting on both cases, chairperson for the human rights group Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ), Susan Goffe, said people are entitled to protect themselves in self defence. "As long as people are not breaking the law they have the right to respond. However, if people go beyond self-defence, it should be dealt with according to the law," said Goffe, who added that she is not privy to the details of the events in order to determine whether excessive force was used in both instances.
