Brothers among four killed in separate police fatal shootings

 

The police say two of the men fatally shot in alleged confrontations in Bethel Town, Westmoreland on Thursday morning, were persons of interest in several murders in the parish as well as Hanover. 

 

They have been identified as brothers, Jaeden Love, aged 22, and 23-year-old Jhordan Love, both from Bethel Town. 

 

The police say two illegal firearms were seized during the operation. 

 

It's reported that sometime after 4 a.m., a team carried out an intelligence-driven operation at Hermitage District in search of the brothers.

 

They were said to be members of the St. James Crook's Nation Gang and were in possession of several illegal firearms, including rifles. 

 

The police say upon entering a house occupied by the brothers, two armed men were observed. 

 

The police reportedly shouted to the men to surrender, but they opened fire. 

 

The fire was returned and the men were shot. 

 

They were pronounced dead at hospital. 

 

A resident told Radio Jamaica News that the brothers were innocent of the allegations against them, further claiming that they were being harassed by the police. 

 

"It's no shootout. If they said it's shootout, it's lie. And God is a man, he's of truth and not lie," said the resident, who complained that the men were always treated as scapegoats. 

 

"Every likkle ting gwaan inna di community, dem waan fi seh a dem. And it's so unfair fi see you kill two innocent person leaving their two son without a father, and they are not guilty of none of what they're charging them for or what they kill them for; they're not guilty," the woman claimed. 

 

In the meantime, the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) is probing a third fatal shooting in Bethel Town on Thursday morning. 

 

The deceased is unidentified.

 

Details on that incident are not yet available.

 

INDECOM says these three incidents and a fourth in St. Catherine, which also occurred on Thursday, have increased the number of police fatal shootings to 153 since the start of the year and 17 for the month of June.