Three cops shot in MoBay operation - ACP Blake warns criminals against challenging the police

Western Bureau:

Acting Commissioner of Police Clifford Blake is warning criminals against confronting members of the security forces after two policemen and a policewoman were shot and a wanted man killed during an early-morning operation in Mount Salem, St James, yesterday.

Twenty-nine-year-old Romario Brown, otherwise called ‘Jerry’, was shot during a confrontation with members of the Area One Fugitive Apprehension Team (AFAT) along Crawford Street shortly after 3 a.m.

Brown was taken to the Cornwall Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A firearm was reportedly recovered.

Blake, who visited the scene on Wednesday morning, said Brown was being sought by the police in connection with several murders and shootings.

“This must be a lesson to all other criminals that if you are prepared to confront members of the security forces, we are going to pursue you and ensure that you are brought to justice,” the acting commissioner declared.

The three injured police personnel have only been identified as Corporal R. Smellie, Constable J. Martinez and Woman Constable S. Griffiths.

Smellie sustained gunshot wounds to his shoulder and both legs and remained hospitalised with injuries described as serious, but not life-threatening.

Martinez was grazed on his right side, while Griffiths escaped more serious injury when a bullet struck the cell phone she was carrying in her back pocket.

Blake said all three police personnel were alive and their injuries were not considered life-threatening.

Standing near the scene of the confrontation, the acting commissioner pointed to the difficult conditions under which the police personnel had been operating – darkness, a narrow zinc-fenced passage and rocky terrain – and credited their training with preventing an even worse outcome.

“Had it not been for the quality training that our members received this morning, I’m almost certain that one of them could have lost their lives,” Blake said.

Meanwhile, a profanity-laced voice note purportedly made by a woman identifying herself as Brown’s sister began circulating following his death.

The Gleaner has not independently verified the identity of the woman.

In the recording, she appears to boast about her brother’s reputation and declares that it took the police to bring him down.

“No boy could tek my brother stripes. A police dem haffi use,” she said.

More disturbing, however, was her reaction to the news that three police officers had been shot during the operation.

“Mi sorry the three a dem couldn’t lay dung too,” she said, apparently expressing regret that the wounded police officers had not been killed.

She also unleashed a string of expletives against residents of Crawford Street.

Blake, meanwhile, said the incident demonstrated that, despite significant gains in the country’s fight against crime, dangerous criminal elements remained willing to confront the security forces.

“We still have criminal elements out there who are prepared to take on the police force and to cause serious harm and serious injury,” he said.

According to preliminary police reports, a team from Area One AFAT went to Crawford Street about 3:18 a.m. in search of Brown.

Police said the team came under gunfire, took evasive action and returned fire. Brown was subsequently found suffering from gunshot wounds.

The Independent Commission of Investigations has been notified of the fatal shooting.

The Montego Bay Criminal Investigations Branch is investigating.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com