Close call
Cabbie says gunmen tried to hijack his car after shooting two cops
MONTEGO BAY, St James — A taxi operator who was parked on St James Street in Montego Bay Wednesday night is counting himself lucky after all but one of the bullets gunmen aimed at his car missed their target.
The man, whose identity will not be revealed for security reasons, said he was sitting outside a supermarket a few minutes after 9:00 pm when men armed with guns went inside. He had been inside a few minutes earlier and was adding credit to his phone.
“They were robbing the place, and the police catch up on them and they shot two of the police them,” he said.
The cabbie said the armed thugs then turned their attention to him.
“They were trying to get an escape vehicle and they chose mine… Them come to my vehicle now and was trying to open the door, but I always lock my door as I go into my car,” he disclosed.
“They were saying to open the door and to start the vehicle and drive because they wanted to make a getaway. But I couldn’t find the key at that point and it seems like they couldn’t bother so them move off and fire couple shots,” he added.
He said the men’s faces were hidden behind ski masks.
“Most of the shots missed the car but one went through the windscreen,” said the cabbie.
He said the bullet grazed his seat, went through a seat in the middle of his vehicle, and lodged in a back seat.
“I was calm throughout the whole thing. It’s when I reach the police station and was giving the statement, that was when I really feel nervous,” he told the Jamaica Observer.
“That’s when I said, ‘Blow wow, coulda dead a while ago inno’,” he said.
While the cabbie escaped the ordeal unscathed, two cops who tried to foil the robbery were shot and injured.
Reports from the police are that members of the St James Beat Office Patrol Division (BOPD) intercepted an attempted robbery at a supermarket. During the confrontation at least two armed men fired shots from high-powered weapons and a handgun.
The release said the injuries sustained by two members of the BOPD are not life-threatening.
“One of them shoulder mash up, one of them thigh bone splinter in several places,” a police source told the Observer.
Undaunted, the cop, who asked not to be identified by name, said they will be working hard to apprehend the individuals responsible.
“We are here to do a job and we’ll continue to do our job. We will find the culprits. As long as you attack the State, the State has the mechanisms to protect themselves, and we are going to search relentlessly,” he vowed.
“It is just for Jamaica to understand that these are the criminals we face. If they can do that in the heart of the town when they are very busy, they have no care but to destroy and to create mayhem,” he continued.
