PARADISE, St James – Fuming residents in this community are accusing the St James police of killing an alleged community strongman in cold-blood Friday morning in full view of a number of citizens, including his eight-year-old stepdaughter.

The residents claim that 45-year-old Cedric Thorpe, who is also called Goosey, of Paradise Cresent, Albion, St James, was shot by policemen wearing ski masks.

“How can an officer attack people inna mask in broad daylight?” one resident who claimed to have witnessed the killing questioned. “Which part of the law, which part of the constitution tell officer fe mask inna broad daylight? How you going define robber from police?”

According to a group of irate citizens who spoke to the Observer, Thorpe, who had just spoken to his daughter, joined a group of four men at a garage in the community when three police vehicles – a mini bus, a motor car and a jeep – drove in.

The residents claimed that two of the cops, whose faces were covered with ski masks, alighted from the police jeep.

They alleged that upon identifying Thorpe, one of the cops removed him from the group. Thorpe was reportedly shot once in his head with an M-16 assault rifle by one of the masked cops. Thorpe’s hands were in the air when he was shot, the residents said. The alleged eyewitnesses further stated that after Thorpe fell to the ground he was shot twice by the same cop.

The other masked cop, they claimed, joined in and pumped two more shots into Thorpe’s writhing body.

After that, according to a number of residents, the cops started to discharge their firearms wildly in the community, commanding citizens to leave the streets.

The Observer was shown three motor vehicles which were dotted with bullets, said to have been fired by the policemen.

But the police gave a conflicting report. According to the CCN liaison officer for St James, a joint police/military team was on patrol in the area at about 11:30 Friday morning when they encountered a group of men standing at a shop. On the approach of the police and soldiers, one of the men pulled a gun and opened fire at the security team, who returned the fire.

When the shooting subsided, Thorpe was found with gunshot wounds. The CCN said that an Intra-tech sub-machine gun with serial number erased, loaded with a magazine containing 11 9mm rounds was taken from him. He was taken to the Cornwall Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The Bureau of Special Investigations has been called in to probe the shooting.