Cop shot dead in Spanish Town
HORACE McKnight, a special constable assigned to the Kingston Central Police Station, was Wednesday night shot dead by gunmen in Spanish Town, St Catherine. He is the first cop to be slain this year.
The police said McKnight and his wife had stopped on Cumberland Road in Spanish Town to make a purchase when he was approached by four men, two of whom were armed with handguns.
The couple, the police said, was ordered out of the vehicle by the men. The woman managed to get out of the vehicle and ran off while McKnight tried to escape by driving away. He was, however, shot by the men who then relieved him of his service revolver and 12 rounds of ammunition, before fleeing the scene.
The policeman was taken to hospital where he died.
Scores or relatives and friends yesterday visited the slain cop’s home to give support to the family.
He died leaving behind six children — 17 year-old Sherika; Samoy, 13; Shanon,10 and four-year-old Ojaughn, products of his marriage to his wife of 17 years, Maxine. His two other children, Damion, 20, and Roger,18, reside in rural Jamaica.
McKnight’s wife was still in a state of shock at the brazen murder of her husband. She broke down in tears as she recounted the experience.
“I don’t know if they were watching us from Mills Pharmacy where we stopped to buy two pairs of white socks for my kids. Macky parked for about 10 minutes while me go and buy it. After that, we left to go home,” the distraught woman said.
McKnight said her husband then saw some plantains at the market and stopped to purchase some. “He was a lover of plantains,” McKnight explained.
“As we about fi drive off now, the boys them come a di car. Four a dem, two wid gun. When we see dem come up we still nah pay it no mind because we thought they were buying something from the lady. Then mi see some come behind the vehicle and a next set coming round to where my door is. Same time one a dem draw out a two-gauge shotgun. It big and him take it outa him underpants,” the bereaved woman said.
She told the Observer that one of the men with the gun ordered her husband not to attempt to drive away from the scene. To save herself, she was forced to push one of the assassins out of the way and ran from the car. McKnight said she ran several yards down the road, shouting for help but was given no assistance. “Nobody nuh help me…they must have thought I was a mad woman.”
After a while, a motorist offered her help and carried her back to the scene.
“The only thing me coulda do a go inna the car and lay down inna the blood and wash and bawl ’till the police come take me out,” a trembling McKnight said.
At that point, she broke down in tears as she recounted the sight of her husband lying on the hospital bed fighting for life. Her heaving sobs drew loud shrieks and screams from the other persons present.
“A whe Jamaicans For Justice deh? When criminal dead them block the road and go on wid all kind a sinting, tell me whe dem deh now dem can’t come talk to me? A whe dem deh? Just true a police them kill,” the woman screamed as she was comforted by a church member.
A police spokesman at the Spanish Town station theorised that the killing may have been carried out by persons who were seeking revenge for the recent police shooting of 21 year-old Dwayne Stewart last Friday in Stephenson Gardens — a community off St John’s Road in Spanish Town. A Ruger pistol with two live rounds were taken from Stewart’s body police said.
“It is my theory that the killing was in revenge for the death of Dwayne Popular (Stewart’s nickname). We are hearing that the killing was perpetrated by men from Tawes Pen and Ellerslie Pen and the dead man was from Ellerslie Pen,” the source revealed.
At the time of his death, Special Constable McKnight was the chairman of the Goldsmith Villa Providence Society in August Town. He was assigned to escort staff of the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation.