Inspector Dennis Gardner poses In Payne Land, St Andrew with the championship trophy last month after coaching Selassie Gardens basketball team to the Home Style Juices Southern Basketball League Division One title. - Photo by LeVaughn Flynn

TWO MEMBERS of the Jamaica Constabulary Force were murdered by gunmen Saturday evening, the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) reported yesterday.

The CCN identified the deceased as Inspector Dennis Gardner, who was assigned to the Hunt's Bay police station, and Corporal Rodney Henry, a firearm instructor at the Police Academy at Twickenham Park.

Their deaths put the number of police killed in Jamaica this year to eight.

Henry was shot by gunmen at 9:27 p.m. as he sat at the gate of his home in Cumberland Meadows, Portmore, St Catherine. He was pronounced dead at the Spanish Town Hospital.

Just over a half-hour later, Gardner was found slumped over the steering wheel of his Toyota Caldina vehicle at Armstrong Avenue in Johns Heights.

His body had several gunshot wounds and his firearm was missing.

No arrests have been made and the police have not said whether the incidents are linked.

National Security Minister, Trevor MacMillan, called the murders an 'unfathomable horror'.

He said the shootings 'clearly demonstrated the cowardly nature of the criminals who prey on unsuspecting persons'.

Poignant reminder

Police Commissioner Hardley Lewin, also commented on the murders.

"This is yet another poignant reminder of the dangers faced by members of the Constabulary and other citizens of Jamaica. Now more than ever is the time for citizens to come forward and be counted in the fight against crime," the Lewin said.

In response to the killings, The Police Federation said Jamaica must find the will to resume hanging and give more stringent punishment to persons found guilty of gun crimes.

"It cannot be business as usual where it is the citizens against the police," said Hartley Stewart, general secretary of the federation. "We must rally against the persons who have no regard for human lives irrespective of who they are."

Opposition spokesman on national security Dr Peter Philllips said the brutal killing of the two lawmen was another bout of cowardice on the part of criminals.

Phillips said the "perpetrators of these acts must be hunted down and brought to justice" and that the assault on law enforcement must stop.

Gardner and Henry were killed two weeks after another policeman, Inspector Marlon Harper, was killed in Moreton Park, Kingston.

Harper was buried Saturday.