Two security experts are questioning the approach of the security forces on Friday to engage gunmen at a house in Sligoville, St Catherine in a shootout given that there were non-combatants in the building.
The hours-long standoff during a special operation left two policemen and three alleged gunmen dead.
A 10-year-old girl was also shot and remains in hospital.
According to the police, the gunmen used the child as a human shield.
Robian Williams reports.
An 18 minute-long video which surfaced on the weekend shows scenes from inside the house at the centre of the hours long stand-off.
The recording appeared to have been a video call between one of the men and at least two persons in a car.
In the video, two of the men in the house are heard negotiating with the police and soldiers as they tried to exit the house with a child.
The men said they were not the ones shooting, but made it known that there were others in the house with guns.
As they continued their negotiation, one man is heard telling the child to scream.
Members of the security forces are heard urging the men to throw their weapons through the window.
The men responded by letting the police know that the man among them with the gun would not comply.
Despite the lack of compliance by one of the men, the police continue negotiating with the other two men.
At this point, the child becomes more vocal, crying loudly and pleading for her life.
She’s heard asking the police not to shoot her.
She later asks the police not to shoot her family.
At one point, the woman on the call tells the men to throw their weapons out the window.
In an attempt to plead with the police, one of them states that he is 21 years old and he has a newborn.
The police are heard calling for a ceasefire as they tried to get the child to exit the house.
However, as they try to leave, one shot is heard.
That’s immediately followed by consistent gunfire.
Former Police Commissioner, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin says a less confrontational approach could have been more beneficial.
And security expert, Robert Finzi-Smith says such an approach was particularly important because a woman and children were in the house.
In the meantime, Finzi-Smith is taking issue with the media’s access to the incident scene 24 hours after the shoot-out.
Robert Finzi-Smith, security expert.
For his part, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin questions if the incident scene had been fully processed by the investigators.
He says it’s a matter for the Inspectorate and Professional Standards Oversight Bureau, I-PROB.
Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, former Commissioner of Police.
Both security experts were speaking on Nationwide This Morning on Tuesday.
