SPANISH TOWN, St Catherine - Former police sergeant Joseph Roberts, 52, of Point Hill, St Catherine, had his bail extended when he appeared in the Spanish Town Criminal Court this week to answer charges of illegal possession of firearm and ammunition and wounding with intent.

Roberts is scheduled to return to court on Tuesday, April 17, when the case will again be mentioned.

In extending Roberts' $30,000 bail, Resident Magistrate Lorna Errar-Gayle ordered that the former policeman's fingerprints be taken to determine if he had a criminal record and also ordered that a social inquiry report on him be submitted to the court by the probation officer.

Detective Corporal Adrian Harvey, in outlining the allegations against Roberts, said that at about 1:00 pm on Thursday, March 22, he received a report of an incident in Point Hill square in which a woman was allegedly shot and injured by Roberts.

He told the court that Roberts, who was seen walking along the road in "a fashion consistent with someone who was drinking", saw a crowd at his gate and told them to move, but when they refused he went for his licensed firearm and allegedly opened fire wildly into the crowd, shooting a woman on the hand.

Roberts later told the court that he was distraught over the death of a relative who had been killed in a car accident in the United States.

The magistrate told Roberts that as a former policeman he could not afford to allow himself to make that kind of mistake as he could find himself among persons that he might have prosecuted.

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