Family claims innocence after soldiers shoot 17-y-o in alleged gun battle
Published:Friday | January 3, 2025 | 12:12 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
The family of a 17-year-old boy, who is currently hospitalised after being shot by the security forces, is rejecting claims that he was among the men who allegedly fired at police officers following an illegal gun salute in Grants Pen, St Andrew, early New Year’s Day.
The teen is said to be in critical condition at a hospital in the Corporate Area, where he is under police guard.
“He is handcuffed to a bed … . The bleeding nuh stop. He is not yet out of the woods because him get shot in some vital places. Him still critical,” a relative told The Gleaner on Thursday.
The relative explained that the teen was with a sibling on their way to get food when they heard explosions.
“Him sister see him drop, and she say, ‘[Name redacted], get up’, and she saw blood coming from him. By time she look, is the soldier dem come over and put three more [shots] in a di youth. She start say, ‘Unuh can’t kill mi breda’ and a so she run off and start bawl out fi help,” the relative claimed.
“When dem search the place, dem nuh find nuh gun or spent shell where [name redacted] was. So we get to understand that the youth dem who did the gun salute dem just dweet and walk gone. Dem never stay one place,” the relative added.
The family told The Gleaner that they would be seeking legal recourse.
Attempts by The Gleaner to get a comment from the Jamaica Defence Force were unsuccessful.
The St Andrew North police are probing the shooting.
A senior police source with knowledge of the investigation told The Gleaner that a joint police-military team was on foot patrol some time after midnight on Grants Pen Drive.
The police say several explosions were heard in the vicinity of a lane that leads to Oddman Lane.
When checks were made, a group of men opened gunfire upon seeing the police.
The police returned fire, and an alleged gun battle ensued.
Once the shooting subsided, the teen was found in a yard with gunshot wounds.
INDECOM probes
The Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) has commenced a probe into the incident.
INDECOM is also conducting investigations into the death of Emani ‘Indian’ Simpson, also in the St Andrew North Police Division.
Simpson was fatally shot by the police in Boone Hall, St Andrew.
Reports are that he was among a group also engaging in an illegal gun salute to mark the New Year.
The police reportedly recovered one Bersa 9mm pistol containing seven 9mm rounds at that scene.
The Jamaica Constabulary Force said four illegal firearms were seized in the first hour of the New Year.