Security forces reacted to deadly force at Sligoville – McKay

Hardley Lewin “There was, available to the operation, some 12 hours of daylight,” Rear Admiral Lewin remarked, referring to the firefight sparked by a 5:15 am attempt by the security forces to apprehend “criminals and wanted persons” in the Five/Six Mile area of Sligoville. “It’s not something that was dusk. There are things that would have to be looked at, in any hot-washer that the police would do, to look at whether there was an alternative way of dealing with this. Did the men have a chance of escaping? Who was in that room that might be innocent? ” Rear Admiral Lewin asked, questioning the tactics employed by the security forces.

However, McKay, who stood by as an International Cricket Council-required JCF hostage negotiator for any eventuality that might have arisen at the 2007 Cricket World Cup staged in Jamaica, pointed to specific circumstances under which a negotiator would be called in as opposed to additional support from tactical teams. “Hostage negotiators generally get involved if there is a lull during a shooting. There was no lull. It was either constant or sporadic gunfire coming from the house, even during what appeared to be conversations between the occupants and the security forces, creating a high level of distrust among the police during which two of their own were shot and killed. “Hostage negotiations do not take place in the middle of shootouts. Once there is sustained or sporadic shooting, it is the tactical operators who handle active shooting scenes,” McKay pointed out. A widely-circulated 18-minute long telephone conversation involving two men engaging members of the security forces, indicating their willingness to leave the house, while claiming there was only one shooter, has been the subject of widespread debate. One of the men was…