Noel Thompson/ Freelance Photographer
Dr. Donette Morris, from the Noel Holmes Hospital in Hanover, checking one of the bodies of the men killed by police and citizens in the parish, yesterday, following a robbery and murder incident.Noel Thompson, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
RESIDENTS IN sections of Hanover celebrated yesterday afternoon's police killing of two men, who allegedly robbed and murdered a businessman in Lucea then engaged the lawmen in a high speed car chase and gunbattle.
A third man was held and chopped to death by the residents.
At press time last night none of the three had been identified. However, another man, alleged to be a crony - Gregory Grant, of Melbourne Avenue and Porto Bello, St. James - was arrested. A fifth man escaped into the bushes.
According to eyewitnesses and the police, the drama started about 1:45 p.m. yesterday, when five men travelling in a white Toyota Corolla motorcar, registered 2259 DU from Montego Bay, stopped at a Hi-Pro Feeds grain store on Seaview Drive in Lucea, Hanover. They held up the proprietor, 66-year-old Everald Miller of Irwin Gardens in St. James and demanded money.
Before their demands were met, they ordered Mr. Miller's sole employee to lie face down on the floor. They robbed Mr. Miller of an undetermined sum of money, following which, they shot him three times, killing him on the spot. The gunmen fled the area, but a motorist who witnessed what happened, alerted the police, while chasing the men. The motorist stopped a passing service vehicle with two detectives on board on the Point main road and informed them about the incident.
The officers gave chase and signalled the driver of the get-away vehicle to stop, but he sped off. However, during the ensuing chase the gunmen engaged the officers in a daring shoot-out in which they (the gunmen) reportedly expended about 30 rounds of ammunition along the highway.
The gunmen's car eventually ran off the road and became stuck. While the driver fought to get the car back onto the road, his accomplices traded bullets with the lawmen until the car was back on the road. The chase continued, but this time, the driver spun the car around in the road and headed towards the police vehicle.
Another round of firing followed, forcing the officers to take cover inside their car. The robbers went into the Jericho community, where they abandoned the car and fled in different directions. One of them went inside a bar and his action aroused the residents' suspicion. He was cornered and chopped to death.
Another of them, who was hiding in bushes, stopped an unmarked police vehicle and asked the senior officer (a detective) to take him back onto the highway. The officer, unaware of who the man was, became suspicious and ordered him to lie face down. While in the process of going down on his knees, he suddenly spun around and grabbed onto the officer's gun. A struggle developed and he was shot dead. The third man was later killed in a shoot-out. The driver, realising what had happened, drove off the car and hid it behind the Campbell's Memorial Presbyterian Church and was lying down flat inside when he was nabbed. The fifth man is still at large.
No money or guns were recovered from the vehicle. A large crowd eventually converged on the scene to witness the bodies.
