Violent protest against police shooting in Hanover
ORANGE BAY, Hanover — Several lawmen, including Assistant Commissioner of Police Linton Latty, had to run for cover yesterday afternoon, when a demonstration staged in protest of a police shooting in this rural community turned violent.
Scores of residents from the community blocked the main road to protest against the police’s shooting of 27 year-old Christopher Davis in his buttocks.
As the policemen cleared the logs, boulders and other debris used to block the road, the residents hurled bottles and stones at the policemen, some of whom were clad in riot gear.
The police had to use tear gas to disperse the violent crowd, while trying to clear a second roadblock nearby.
According to Deputy Superintendent in charge of Hanover, Lynette Williams-Martin, the shooting was accidental.
She said the police were on an operation in the community yesterday afternoon and tried to apprehend a number of men who were reportedly operating bike taxis.
The deputy superintendent said the men rode off, the police pursued them and were holding onto Davis when one lawman’s gun went off.
But several persons, who claimed to be eyewitnesses, disputed the police account. They contended that Davis was deliberately shot.
“The police hit a youth off his bike, then went after Davis and shoot him in his back,” one man told the Observer.
Davis was reportedly sent to the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital for treatment, meanwhile DSP Williams-Martin said that the Bureau of Special Investigations will be investigating the incident.