Slain cop said to have received death threats
CONROY Reid, the 21-year-old special constable who was gunned down on Monday night at the West Cumberland Plaza in Portmore, St Catherine, was allegedly receiving death threats just prior to his murder, sources told the Observer.
The sources said the constable, whose duties included checking for and regulating illegal activity related to sand mining, agriculture, deforestation and vending, had been complaining of the threats for a few weeks and had made an application to his superiors for a service firearm to protect himself. They said, however, that his application was denied.
According to our sources, the threats had come from men in the violence-torn Central Village area of St Catherine where the constable lived until a few weeks before his murder.
The deputy assistant commandant at the Metropolitan Operations of the Island Special Constabulary Force, Douglas Fletcher, denied having knowledge of threats against Reid’s life, but admitted that the constable did apply to him, through his immediate supervisor, Commander William Malabver, for a keep and carry firearm. He said that the request was turned down based on lack of proof that his life was indeed in danger.
“He did not report the case of threat against his life…and when he applied for the firearm, I sent out an investigative team to the area in which he was living at the time and did not find out anything, so on the grounds of that I did not issue the firearm,” Fletcher said.
“He had one for work during the days, but like all the other police officers, he had to hand it over at the end of the day,” Fletcher said.
The Observer sources said sometime after 6:00 on the night of the shooting, Reid, who had just moved to the West Cumberland area from the hot spot of Central Village on the outskirts of Spanish Town, called one of his colleagues and asked directions to the plaza. He told his colleague he was going to meet a female friend.
The colleague said he tried to dissuade Reid from his rendezvous because he had volunteered to do some painting in the house which Reid and another colleague, who was with him at the time of the shooting, had rented together.
Speaking with the Observer on condition of anonymity yesterday, a policeman at Harman Barracks who graduated from the force’s Twickenham Park training school at the same time as Reid, reminisced on experiences he shared with the now deceased cop. He remembered Reid, affectionately called ‘Waiver’, as a “bright” young man who was always being teased and hassled because of his height.
In what appears to have been a hit, a gunman pounced upon Constable Reid while he and a colleague were at the West Cumberland Plaza on Monday evening and shot him four times, twice in the chest area and twice in the face. The young cop died on the spot.
Commissioner of Police Lucius Thomas said the brutal slaying of the 21-year-old special constable has again shown how far criminals in the society would go to achieve their goals.
Commissioner Thomas urged that investigations into the murder of Constable Reid be conducted efficiently and speedily in order to bring the perpetrator to justice as quickly as possible.
Reid’s murder was also condemned by National Security Minister Dr Peter Phillips who said that the crime stands as a reminder that criminals continue to be a menace to the society.
“Any criminal assault on our law enforcement personnel or infrastructure warrants an immediate and forceful response,” said Phillips. He added that the police will continue their investigation into the killing until the persons responsible are identified and brought to justice.