Mobile Reserve cops mourn colleague's death

Glenroy Sinclair and Karen Sudu, Gleaner Writers

MEMBERS OF the Mobile Reserve Unit were in a sombre mood yesterday as news spread like wildfire that one of their colleagues had been shot and killed by gunmen on Thursday night at the Rosemount Housing Scheme in St Catherine.

The brutal murder of Constable Otis Barrett has left a dark cloud of grief hanging over the rural district.

According to the Jamaica Constabulary Force weekly crime statistics, the 42-year-old constable has become the 11th member of the constabulary to have been murdered by criminals since January.

Barrett was killed less than a week after Police Commissioner Owen Ellington warned police personnel about the threat level against them and implored the lawmen and women to defend themselves against criminal attacks.

Up to late yesterday afternoon, the police were interviewing the girlfriend of the slain policeman. The Gleaner also understands that police investigators have since secured some vital pieces of evidence which they believe could assist in their investigation.

Reports are that Barrett, a policeman for the past eight years, was at his girlfriend's house when he was killed.

"He was well loved by his colleagues," a senior officer at the Mobile Reserve told The Gleaner yesterday.

According to the senior officer, Barrett was noted for taking a keen interest in the welfare of his colleagues.

Unfortunate, brutal

In the meantime, the residents of Rosemount openly expressed anger and disbelief at what they described as an unfortunate incident and a brutal act.

"We need love inna we country. We need everybody to come together and spread that love and share that love because, at the end of the day, in Rosemount, the entire Jamaica, we need love. We can't continue killing like this," a young male resident told The Gleaner.

The landlord for the family-owned premises where the gruesome act was committed told The Gleaner that the killing had left her in a state of shock.

"I am really traumatised because I live overseas and I come out to bury my brother who died from a heart attack, and now this. Plenty of us gathered right here last night for the first time since my brother died because is right here we going to have the set-up," she explained.

"Rosemount is a quiet community and I live here 40-odd years. I know the youths. Them make little noise, them play them football at the community centre. Most of them don't really have no work, but we don't have stealing or anything like that in here. This is bad for us, very bad, because we not use to it," said an elderly resident who had served the St Catherine Parish Council for 35 years.

Minister of National Security Senator Dwight Nelson has condemned the calculated, callous, and cowardly act that claimed the life of Barrett.

He said the killing must be condemned in the strongest terms by all well-thinking and law-abiding citizens, and that the attacks on members of the security forces, and, by extension the State, must be seen as a threat to the nation's stability.