WESTERN BUREAU:
A MAN who was being sought for the brutal slaying of a 22-year-old man in Fern Square, Cambridge, St. James, last November, was shot and killed by the police in an alleged shoot-out on Tuesday.
Roger Ricketts, 28, of Cambridge and Kingston addresses, though he managed to elude the law, was cut down by police bullets on the exact day that Mark Thompson was shot dead.
Constable Lancelot Tyrell, the Constabulary Communication Network officer for St. James, told The Gleaner that Thompson was killed 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday. "Thompson was standing with a group of men when a man, positively identified as Ricketts, approached them and pulled a handgun," Constable Tyrell said.
The report further stated that the men ran and Ricketts chased Thompson and shot him twice in the head.
He was also wanted in connection with a number of crimes, including shootings, robbery and arson committed in the Cambridge area.
Area One Flying Squad and the Montego Bay Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) Special Patrol were carrying out duties in the Cambridge area about 11:30 a.m. when Ricketts was seen. When he was challenged, he reportedly pulled a firearm from his waist and engaged them in a shoot-out. Ricketts was shot and killed.
A 9-mm Bryco automatic pistol with the serial number 1378170 containing three rounds of ammunition and two spent shells were recovered from him. He was pronounced dead at the Cornwall Regional Hospital.
Ricketts is the 17th person that has been fatally shot by the St. James police since the start of the year.
