Men arrested following Lawrence Tavern robbery, police shootout
Published:Friday | March 18, 2022 | 1:20 PM
Andre Williams, Staff Reporter
Two men were arrested following a police shootout in Lawrence Tavern, St Andrew on Thursday.
The men were apprehended following a robbery at a gaming business, which is located near the Lawrence Tavern Police Station.
The police also seized stolen gaming boxes, tools and a motor vehicle.
“Five men went into the establishment heavily armed and the police came and there was a shootout. Some of the men ran into bushes. After challenging the police, two persons were arrested,” a senior officer who requested anonymity told The Gleaner.
“These men are so brazen, a right at the station it happened, basically at the station gate. They challenged both the Lawrence Tavern police and the team from Constant Spring who came to assist,” the lawmen added.
“Those boxes have been the target of thieves right across the island,” the police source told The Gleaner.
In recent weeks, there have been robberies at bars in Irish Town, Central Kingston and Stony Hill.
The most recent incident was on Tuesday when a bar was robbed in Stony Hill.
The police said that it has not been determined if the men from Thursday were involved in that incident.
The theft and sale of the popular gaming boxes, which are a major component of bars across the country, has emerged as lucrative on the black market.
The Gleaner spoke with a bar operator who said that one of the boxes is valued at over $500,000 and they rent them from owners.
“It's the American-style slot machines. Gamers have to insert the money. It's really the money they [thieves] want but some time to get the money you have to pull off the boxes. They also resell the games to people who want them. You have man out there that buy them,” the bar operator said.
Meanwhile, two policemen are now before the courts for their alleged involvement in attempts to break into a bar last year in East Kingston to remove gaming boxes.
They were arrested last December along with two other men by the Elleston Road Police.
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