A manhunt has been launched for a 17-year-old student and two other men after 2 officers were gunned down in St Andrew on Thursday night. The incident happened on Waltham Park Road, where the two off-duty policemen were having a conversation with a group of men over a stolen vehicle.
Reports say that the policemen were attempting to resolve an issue concerning a stolen vehicle. The encounter, which occurred near a workplace that is jointly operated by officers, turned deadly when at least two of the men brandished handguns and opened fire at the police around 8 p.m.
The police suffered several gunshot wounds to their upper bodies, and the attackers ran from the area. The injured officers were discovered by residents who rushed them to the Kingston Public Hospital. The policemen succumbed to their injuries while receiving treatment shortly after their arrival.
The policemen were later identified as Constable Jemarey Gordon of CTOC and Constable Charles Stewart of the St Catherine North Division. The Jamaica Constabulary Force has since stated that a student and two men are now wanted in connection with the attack.
What is already known is that the teenager, who lives along Waltham Park Road, is being pursued alongside 20-year-old Macarius Munroe, otherwise called “Mackie”, from Ricketts Crescent, Kingston 13, and Junior Brown, also 20, from Seaward Drive in Kingston 11. All three were ordered to report to the police by 6 p.m. Friday, but none have yet come forward.
The three men now being sought are believed to be part of the Dust City Gang and are reportedly linked to a car-stealing ring operating across the Corporate Area. Police say that the wanted men reportedly stole a white 2015 Toyota Allion earlier on Thursday, which was reported to the Cross Roads Police Station. That vehicle was later found parked along Waltham Park Road.
The names of the two men are not unfamiliar to law enforcement, based on reports. Earlier this year, Brown and Munroe were suspected of having a connection in a murder case and were detained and taken into custody at the Duhaney Park Police Station.
The detainment marked Munroe’s second time in police custody recently, as he was previously held by police last May after being found in a vehicle equipped with a device commonly used to steal cars. Brown, on another occasion, had also been detained by the Hunts Bay Police Station when police found twenty-five 9mm cartridges and three magazines on his property.