KINGSTON, Jamaica — A police constable was nearly stabbed to death in a downtown store after his girlfriend refused to purchase an item of clothing, the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court was told.

According to the clerk of court, the cop and his girlfriend entered a store and the woman asked to fit a blouse that she intended to purchase. However she was told that the blouse was the tight-fighting type and as such she could not try it.

"How mi girlfriend will know if it fit or not?" the police asked the store clerk, the court was told.

The store owner, Sandra Smart, the court was told, used expletives to the two and told them to leave the store. An altercation developed between both women and the cop, who was in plain-clothes, attempted to part them.

During the altercation, it is alleged that a man, Jerome Carwin, came from outside the store and stabbed the cop in the shoulder, the clerk told the court.

The cop was reportedly also attacked in the store by Smart, 73-year-old Joyce Millings and 18-year-old Sashayle Gayle.

He had to be hospitalised for a day after being rescued by another store owner.

Following a bail application by attorney Ernest Davis 48-year-old Smart and Carwin, 34, were each offered $250,000 bail, with conditions.

The others are currently on bail. All four were ordered finger-printed.

The four are expected back in court on October 24.