Daraine Luton, Staff ReporterCOP KILLERS are being hunted. The police recently released the names of five persons wanted for the murders of policemen in the Corporate Area, St. Catherine and Clarendon.
Two of the men, Leighton 'Leaches' Shirley and one known as Shrek, accompanied by their lawyers, have turned themselves in.
Shirley, 19, was on Friday charged with the murder of 23-year-old police constable Duval Oxford.
Constable Oxford was killed in Thompson Pen, St. Catherine, on May 6 as he stepped out of his house. His licensed firearm, a nine-millimetre Beretta pistol was stolen by his attackers.
Shirley, who has been in police custody for more than two weeks, was earlier named by the police as a chief suspect.
The man known as Shrek is still being questioned.
Meanwhile, the other three alleged cop killers are still on the run. They are Omar Delgado Nicholson, 31, of De La Vega City, his nephew Oneil Nicholson, also called Coolie of a similar address, and Renardo Harrison, also called Rodrick of March Pen Road in St. Catherine.
MEMBERS OF THE KLANSMAN GANG
The five are all members of the Klansman gang which operates in the Old Capital, Spanish Town.
Operation Kingfish spokesman Inspector Steve Brown said the police had intensified their efforts in finding the cop killers since the murder of two policemen in St. Catherine recently.
Corporal Lincoln Parker of the Special Anti-Crime Task Force was shot dead by gunmen at a dance in De La Vega City in Spanish Town on June 3, less than a week after Detective Sergeant Desmond Carter was shot and killed in Ensom City.
Cpl. Parker was the seventh member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) killed this year. Insp. Brown, though, has warned gunmen not to believe they can continue killing lawmen and expect it to be business as usual.
"Whenever you kill a policeman, you have attacked the very fabric of law and order in society and we will leave no stones unturned until they are brought to justice," Insp. Brown said.
"You can't kill our colleagues and believe it is bed of roses ... We will not just go to the the funeral and that is it. We will get you," he said.
But is this a new thrust by the force to bring cop killers to justice?
Insp. Brown says no. He also says it is neither to be interpreted as the police turning a blind eye to the capture of other criminals.
"We have 34 members of top major gangs before the courts now for murders and other crimes. We are not ignoring other crimes.
Our aim is to bring down murders significantly in Jamaica," Insp. Brown said.
A total of 172 police have been killed since 1992. Between 2001 and now, more than 70 police
officers have met a violent end from the gun.
