Detective Sergeant Edmond Brown and wife Lilieth. - Rudolph Brown/Staff Photographer THE LAST time Lilieth Brown spoke to her husband, Detective Sergeant Edmond Brown, was just after midnight yesterday morning. At the end of the conversation he promised to call her back, but that call never came.
"I sat up and waited for his call. The only call I got was from the police that he was shot and killed by gunmen," whispered Mrs. Brown, forcing a smile even while fighting back the tears.
About 1:15 yesterday morning, the 45-year-old sub-officer responded to reports of a motor car being stolen in the Portmore area of St. Catherine.
Radio transmissions indicated that stolen car was being driven in the Bog Walk police area where Det. Sgt. Brown works.
Police reports said he and another colleague attempted to apprehend the hold-up men in the Bog Walk community when he was shot about four times, mainly in the face and upper body. He was later pronounced dead at the Spanish Town Hospital.
A 25-year veteran of the police force, Mr. Brown is the fifth policeman killed by gunmen since January. He is survived by his wife, two children and three grandchildren.
According to Mrs. Brown, her husband is a graduate of Tivoli Gardens Comprehensive High School in West Kingston, where he spent his childhood years. He left high school in 1975 and enlisted in the police force on March 28, 1977.
"He has spent more than half of his life in the police force and October 27 would have been 27 years we have been together. We have been married for 18 years now," she said.
A $1 million reward is being offered for any information leading to the arrest of Mr. Brown's killer(s). Up to late yesterday evening a joint police/military team was combing the parish for the suspects.
Police Commissioner Francis Forbes has since expressed shock and outrage.
"This dastardly behaviour must not be allowed to go unpunished. We need the co-operation of all law-abiding citizens of this country to ensure that there is no safe haven for these mal-contents whose deviant actions are tearing at the fabric of civilised society," Commissioner Forbes said.
National Security Minister Peter Phillips said the death of Sergeant Brown was a stark reminder that the battle against criminals must be intensified.
While condemning the act, opposition spokesman on national security, Derrick Smith, said an example must be made of the perpetrators as the brazen killing of officers who work with diligence to ensure that the laws of the land are enforced must not go unpunished.
The lobby group, Jamaicans for Justice, also condemned the killing saying the act reinforced the need for the entire society to be united in a commitment to the rule of law.
