By Nagra Plunkett, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
A MAN who was wanted for the murder of Police Detective Rupert Gardener, was killed by the St. James police on Wednesday evening.
Karlie Omar Williams, otherwise known as 'Matalon', 24 years of no fixed address was fatally shot on Vernon's Drive near Mount Salem in Montego Bay.
According to the Constabulary Communications Network (CCN) a police team was on patrol on Salt Spring about 6:30 p.m. they saw Williams. On seeing the police, he reportedly turned on Vernon's Drive.
Williams is alleged to have pulled a firearm and fired at the lawmen. The fire was returned and Williams was hit.
He was pronounced dead at the Cornwall Regional Hospital.
A .38 Smith and Wesson revolver with the serial number erased, as well as three live rounds and three spent shells, taken from his body.
The St. James police are reporting that they have seized 28 illegal firearms since the start of the year.
Williams is the 13th person that has been fatally shot by the St. James police since January.
Detective Gardener was gunned down at the Westgate Shopping Centre in Montego Bay on June 10. Police reports are that Gardener, who was attached to the Montego Bay Criminal Investigation Branch, was shot in the head by one of two gunmen while he was conducting business inside a cambio.
His 9mm service revolver was taken from him and the men escaped on foot in the nearby Westgate Hills area.
The St. James police subsequently killed Frank 'Prento' Riley, who was figured as Williams' accomplice in the policeman's murder, in August. A 9mm Browning pistol, serial number E07165 with a loaded magazine and two spent shells were recovered.
Riley, according to the police report, was reportedly shot and killed after firing at a police party in Rose Heights, St. James when he was accosted.
Subsequent forensic tests revealed that the recovered firearm was the one used to shoot Detective Gardener.
