INDECOM probing fatal police shootings in St James and St Mary

The Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) is probing two separate fatal police shootings that occurred on Monday.

One man was shot and killed during an alleged confrontation in Salt Spring, St James and another in Scott’s Hall district in Castleton, St Mary.

The deceased man in the St James incident has been identified as 21-year-old Jodane James, otherwise called Sizzler.

According to INDECOM, the police reported that they were armed with a search warrant in Salt Spring to locate a man known as Sizzler.

It was further reported that upon gaining entry to the house by a woman, rooms were searched and a man was seen with a firearm pointed at the police.

The officers, according to INDECOM, are reported to have fired in the direction of the man, and he was pronounced dead at hospital.

Meanwhile, in St Mary, the police report that information was received in relation to a man seen with a gun.

Officers reportedly visited the premises, and the man failed to comply with instructions to drop the firearm, according to INDECOM.

It is alleged that the man pointed the firearm at the officers, who in turn fired in the man’s direction.

The formal identification of the deceased in St Mary remains unconfirmed. He is known by the alias ‘Dodd/Dadda’.

A firearm was reportedly recovered by the police in each of the incidents, INDECOM reported.

Additionally, the commission says no body-worn camera was reported as being worn by any of the concerned officers in either of the two incidents.

It says both incident scenes were examined and the evidential material recovered, processed, and packaged.

INDECOM says the hands of the deceased were swabbed for gunshot residue, and their bodies photographed and sealed, pending post-mortem examination.

The concerned officers were served notices to submit statements and/or attend interviews.

INDECOM says these latest shootings increase to 282 the total number of persons who have been fatally shot by the security forces so far this year.

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