RELATIVES and friends of Peter Francis have challenged the police’s claim that their loved one was armed with a gun when he was fatally shot in Havana, Arnett Gardens, St Andrew Monday night.

Police reported that someone was shot dead during a shoot-out with gunmen and a firearm was seized.

The incident, which took place on Monday night about 7:00 pm, was followed by a roadblock by irate residents for what they said was an unjust killing as the 52-year-old was suffering from a mental breakdown.

When asked about the incident, Senior Superintendent of Police Michael Phipps, commanding officer for the Kingston Western Police Division, told the Jamaica Observer that Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom) was probing the matter.

“We were involved in a shoot-out with gunmen and at the end of it one person was hit and a firearm was recovered from that person. That is all we are willing to say on that, as Indecom is investigating so we will just allow them to do their investigation,” he said.

Francis’s relatives, whose names are being withheld, continuously broke down in tears while speaking about the tragic incident with the Observer.

“Peter really dead?” said Francis’s mother as she burst into tears, while being comforted by her relatives and close friends at her house.

“Mi neva know seh a suh it hot. Mi lose mi second child. Him annuh gunman. All him do a sell a town. If mi coulda walk my pickney couldn’t dead suh,” she added.

One of his sisters recalled getting the sad news about Francis, who is commonly referred to as ‘Juki’, while on a phone call.

“When I was on the phone with my brother in the kitchen, I turned to come out of the kitchen and a two police that mi see with gun inna me face who asked, ‘Weh him deh, weh him deh?’,” she told the Observer.

“So mi seh ‘Weh who deh?’ So when I approached the verandah I heard my brother on the phone saying, ‘A gunshot that?’ At that time we heard the neighbours screaming and shouting, ‘Him sick, him sick, him sick,” she said.

According to the sister, Francis had been visiting his mother, when he ran off after seeing the police who were in the area.

“He ran because he is afraid of police,” she said.

Another sister explained that Francis started displaying abnormal behaviour after their father died in 2020 and he and his spouse ended their relationship of some 20 years.

“He started out being depressed. We lost our dad in 2020 to cancer, and Peter said to me, ‘I don’t even mourn my father yet’, and then afterwards he and his babymother separated, so that triggered a mental breakdown,” the sister said.

“We tried getting help for him, called the police and they wouldn’t come. My brother does not have a gun. He wouldn’t be involved in that,” the sister added.