INDECOM probing police fatal shooting on Mountain View Avenue

By Clinton McGregor    

 

The Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) is probing another fatal shooting by the police.

 

Paul Cassanova, otherwise called 'Pablo' - the reputed leader of the Bayshore Park gang - was killed during a police operation on Mountain View Avenue on Wednesday morning.

 

It's reported that about 4:50 a.m., the police conducted a targeted operation at 72 Mountain View Avenue in search of Cassanova, who was wanted for questioning in connection with a bloody turf war in the Bayshore Park community.

 

He was fatally shot and a firearm reportedly seized from him.

 

The police alleged that as a result of the turf war, Cassanova had fled the Bayshore Park community to Mountain View, where he had been planning and launching attacks against his rivals.

 

INDECOM says 11 fatal shootings by members of the security forces have been recorded since the start of this year.

 

Meanwhile, Acting Assistant Commissioner Michael Phipps, head of the Area 4 Police, has warned gang leaders and wanted fugitives to cooperate with the police and desist from engaging in confrontations with law enforcement.

 

He said the police are determined to dismantle gangs as part of its anti-crime strategy. 

 

"We want them to know that we know who they are and we know what they are doing and we will use the laws to disrupt their illegal activities and, of course, we will adopt a zero tolerance approach regarding them. The year [has] not been off to a very good start in terms of the number of violent crimes that we have been seeing, and our investigations have shown so far that the gangs are responsible for the current high crime wave that we are seeing across the Area 4 space. I would like to urge the gangsters to surrender and not to in any way challenge or resist if we come to arrest them," he pleaded.