WILLIAMS. arrested for questioning concerning certain activities in Kingston East

Well-known East Kingston businessman and People's National Party (PNP) activist Danhai Williams was last night arrested by the police as they moved to stem a flare-up of violence in the tough Rockfort community on the capital's eastern end.

"He has been arrested for questioning concerning certain activities in Kingston East, and that's all we are prepared to say at this point in time," Karl Angell, the constabulary's director of communications, told the Observer last night.

Williams' arrest brings to four the number of PNP activists arrested since the violence worsened in Rockfort over the past few weeks.

George Flash, Anthony 'Tigo' Brown and a man known only as 'Mendez', all activists of the ruling PNP, were arrested, along with other men, on Sunday. But the arrests sparked a fiery demonstration on Monday by residents of Rockfort claiming that the police were demonstrating bias as there were no arrests of prominent activists from the other side of the community known as lower Rockfort.

On Monday, Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields said Flash, Brown, 'Mendez' and the other men were arrested based on information gathered by police investigators.

In February this year, a magistrate turned down Williams' application for his passport to be returned to him. Williams is facing a $450-million fraud charge in connection with the NHDC/Operation Pride shelter programme.

His name was called in the now famous Crawle trial in which cops accused of murder were freed. Williams had apparently reneged on a deal with the Director of Public Prosecutions to testify against the cops.

He was to have testified for the Crown in exchange for immunity from prosecution for illegal possession of a firearm, but hid during the trial, surfacing only after the Crown had wrapped up its case.

Yesterday, as violence continued in Rockfort, a teenager was murdered, while 15 homes and a bar were torched.

Gunmen also shot up a police service vehicle yesterday in which head of operations for the Kingston East Police Division, Deputy Superintendent Noel Christie, was travelling with other officers.

Bullets destroyed the back glass of the service vehicle, but none of the officers were injured.

"It was dread this morning when we came under fire," head of the Mountain View Police Station, Deputy Superintendent Winston Lawrence, told the Observer. "The gunmen sprayed the car with bullets and it is a miracle no one got hurt," he added.

Nine persons have now been murdered and eight others have been injured in the month-long violence which has severely affected the lives of residents in the volatile community.

The violence has disrupted normal community life in Rockfort, forcing the closure of schools and businesses.

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