Special constable kills girlfriend, then himself
A Spanish Town police constable shot and killed his female companion and then turned the gun on himself, firing a bullet to his head early yesterday morning in Horizon Park, Spanish Town, St Catherine.
Special Constable Wayne Christian, 23, and Donna Messam, 31, a practical nurse, had spent the night together at the house he shared with two other policemen at 4 Tropical Drive.
Christian, who had three years’ service in the Island Special Constabulary Force (ISCF), served as body guard to a resident magistrate.
According to Constabulary Communication Network liaison officer Sergeant Jerbert Llewllyn, explosions were heard in Christian’s apartment at about 6:30 am after which the bodies were found with gunshot wounds.
Messam, he said, had three gunshot wounds to the chest and head, while Christian had a gunshot to the temple.
Special Corporal Jason Bailey, who lives at the house, said that at about 6:30 am he was sweeping the yard when he heard Messam scream.
“After that, I heard three shots fire. I ran and knocked on his (Christian’s) bedroom window, and then I hear a next shot. Two of us ran on the verandah and kicked open the door and to my surprise, I saw Wayne on the floor bleeding and Donna sitting in a chair bleeding as well. They both appeared to be dead to me,” Bailey said. “I am traumatised, man. We train together and everything. He surprised me, really. I never thought he would have done that.”
Police said they took a .38 police service revolver from beside Christian’s body and found four spent shells in the room.
The dead cop’s father, Robert Christian, joined the large crowd which gathered at the death house in the quiet middle-class housing scheme. He said his son would never do such a horrible thing to himself, although he admitted that the cop was a quiet person who got very irritable when he was upset.
“I just can’t believe what happen to him. He would never do something like that,” said Robert Christian.
Kerry Ann Morgan, 29, of May Pen, Clarendon, who has a son for Christian, could not control her emotions. Clutching the six-month-old close to her breast, she expressed bitterness that police investigators would not allow her to see his body.
“Me was at home early this morning when I heard and I nearly died,” cried Morgan. “I had to come and see for myself. I just can’t believe he would do such a thing as to take his life. I can’t believe him dead until ah see him.”
The ISCF’s acting assistant commander for region 5, Leroy Beckford, said news of Christian’s death had traumatised the police in Spanish Town.
He remembered Christian as an “unassuming, quiet constable and a dedicated worker with high intelligence who was diligent in his duties of providing close protection for one of the resident magistrates of the parish”.
Beckford said the special constable was always cheerful “and even if he had problems you would never know because he would not talk about them. But his close friends all say he had a bad temper”.
Added Beckford: “He will be greatly missed.”