Gunmen used child in false surrender ploy to shoot cops in St Catherine, Brooks says

The gunmen who engaged the police in a deadly shoot-out in the community of Six Miles, which is located along the Sligoville main road in St Catherine, on Friday used a child as a ploy to open fire on cops, Senior Communication Strategist in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), Senior Superintendent Dennis Brooks, told the media at the scene this afternoon.

It was reported that the men barricaded themselves inside a house during the operation, which left a policeman dead and another critically wounded.

A third policeman was injured in the incident. He was reportedly grazed by a bullet, and his injury is not considered life-threatening.

The gunmen were also shot and killed during the firefight, and weapons were seized, Brooks reported.

A young girl reportedly fled the house and was found with gunshot injuries.

The 10-year-old child was taken to hospital, where she is in critical condition.

Brooks told reporters that the gunmen held a child at the door and indicated that they were prepared to surrender.

However, he said that when the police attempted to get to the child, the men opened fire.

“I can confirm that the gunmen sought to utilise a child to effect a false surrender, and that speaks to the very callous nature, the ruthless nature of these people who the police have to deal with,” Brooks said.

“I can confirm that a child was held out the door and it was declared that they were willing to surrender, and when the police approached seeking to retrieve the child, that fire was opened upon those policemen, and those are the two policemen who were seriously injured,” he added.

Brooks said the gunmen fired from behind the child, putting the police in a difficult position as they sought to enter the dwelling while accounting for the presence of civilians.

He said a woman inside the house had informed the police that there were children inside the premises.

Brooks said two children and the woman were rescued from the house.

He added that one of the children was about six months old.

The woman is expected to be questioned.

The senior superintendent said the police had to balance the need to apprehend the gunmen with the responsibility of protecting the civilians inside the house.

“On multiple occasions, the gunmen indicated that they were willing to surrender. And it is the intention of the police on every operation to bring persons to justice, place them before the court,” he said.

“And so it is not our intention to proceed marauding into a building, whether or not there are children and women in there. And if there is an indication, even the slightest indication, that they are willing to surrender, then we are going to engage that possibility. The fact that they utilised this reality made it a challenge because they would have pretended that they were inclined to surrender,” Brooks continued.

Brooks said the gunmen’s apparent willingness to surrender complicated the operation, as officers had to consider the possibility that the offer was genuine while protecting the civilians.

“The presence of women, a woman and children in the facility, in the space, means that our objectives of the operation are at least twofold. It would not just be to arrest violent offenders, but also to secure the innocent,” he said.

Brooks condemned the gunmen’s actions, saying the incident illustrated the dangers officers face when confronting individuals identified as high-risk targets.

He said the operation was connected to a high-risk target believed to be associated with another high-risk target in the St Andrew North Police Division.

He said two weapons were seized during the operation, adding that there was evidence that other firearms had been used and that further operations were conducted.

“I can't confirm the number of rounds, but it only speaks to the reality that these are heavily armed individuals, that they had the capacity to engage the security forces in sustained gunfire. They had multiple weapons and a large cache of ammunition, clearly,” said Brooks, who indicated that the operation began before dawn and lasted for hours.

“These are the criminals that we face, and when we tell the Jamaican people that we have information that is credible about the capacity of these people to do considerable violence, this is manifestly what we are talking about.”

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