By Daviot Kelly, Staff Reporter
Residents of Majesty Gardens mount a roadblock as they protest against the shooting of a boy allegedly by the police yesterday. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
A 12-YEAR-OLD boy was shot and injured as residents of Majesty Gardens, popularly known as "Back-To", clashed with police in a demonstration yesterday afternoon.
According to Superintendent Oswald Ayre of the Hunt's Bay Police Station, the police accompanied workmen from the Revenue Protection Division (RPD) of the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPSCo), to disconnect illegal power lines in the community about 12:15 p.m. He said residents began pelting the police and workmen with bottles and gunshots were reportedly fired by some of them.
According to Supt. Ayre, the police returned the fire and the 12-year-old boy, Brandon Salesman, a student of John Mills Primary & Junior High, was later found with a gunshot wound to the right thigh. He has since been admitted to the Kingston Public Hospital.
Two members of the RPD team, Hopeton Daley and Christopher Coke, were also injured. Six vehicles were damaged in the fracas - three from the RPD and three police patrol cars.
Residents of the community who had mounted at least three roadblocks in protest, however, told a different tale claiming that it was the police who started firing indiscriminately when people objected to their presence. They denied that residents threw any objects at the police or fired any shots and blamed the police for shooting young Brandon.
A 52-year-old man was also reportedly shot by the police. The residents said the labourer, Reginald Henclewood, was shot while returning from a shop where he had gone to buy a snack.
The police said, however, that Henclewood was not injured as previously believed, and that he was later let out of the vehicle carrying him to hospital. Up to late afternoon, he had still not returned to the community, however.
Two men were also detained in connection with the clash but had not yet been charged up to press time.
