Nagra Plunkett, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE ST. James police are reporting that their anti-robbery strategy, launched last October, has so far cut thefts by almost 50 per cent over the corresponding period last year.
"We have 52 robberies reported as at May 21, representing 49 less than the same period last year," Superintendent Warren Clarke told The Gleaner yesterday. "Our anti-robbery system has proven very effective against criminal elements and we are confident of the strategy."
Superintendent Clarke, who is the commanding officer for the St. James Police Division, was speaking against the background of the fatal shooting of a 32-year-old man in Montego Bay on Friday.
MAN MURDERED
The dead man, whom he described as a "reputed thief", was identified as Phillip Haughton of Roehampton district in the parish.
Police reports are that lawmen went to accost Haughton about 10:30 a.m. after he was implicated in three earlier robberies committed in the Market Circle area.
It is said that he pulled a knife at one of the policemen at the intersection of Barnett Lane and River Bay Road in the western city, and was shot in the chest. Haughton died at hospital.
"He has been imprisoned several times in the past and he is known to operate in Market Circle (near Charles Gordon Market)," Mr. Clarke noted.
His recent victims, from whom he stole $1,280 at knifepoint, included an elderly man, a 75-year-old carpenter and a 45-year-old higgler.
