POLICE yesterday said they had detained 26 persons in connection with Saturday’s violent mob assault on the Spaldings Police Station in Clarendon in which a 16 year-old schoolboy was shot dead, 10 persons, among them seven cops, were injured, the police station set alight and police vehicles damaged.

Among the detainees is David Wright, a 39-year-old vendor of Laughton district, Spaldings, who police suspect of setting fire to a car at the police station.

Wright, who was picked up in Spaldings, is charged with possession of ganja and is being detained on suspicion of malicious destruction of a motor car.

“Wright is the main suspect we want,” said Superintendent George Quallo, who is in charge of Manchester. “He was seen on a news item on a television (video) clip Sunday setting fire to the Mazda car at the station.”

Wright’s arrest had yesterday morning sparked a street protest by residents who blocked the Alston and Sudbury main roads with stones, logs, car tyres and other debris. They said he was innocent.

However, by mid-afternoon, the blockage was cleared and Superintendent Quallo reported that although calm had returned to Spaldings, Alston remained “very, very tense”.

Said Quallo: “The Alston area is very tense but Spaldings is coming back to normal now. You see, the residents there have denounced the attack on the station. They are very disturbed about it and told me that it ought not to have happened.”

About 60 members of the Crime Management Unit (CMU) were deployed to the area yesterday, while special 24-hour police patrols were being maintained in both districts.

The chain of violent incidents started at about 3:10 pm on Saturday when three men, who were travelling in a white Mazda 323 motor car along the Alston main road, came upon a roadblock mounted by residents, apparently to protest against a recent spate of robberies and shootings in the area.

The occupants of the car, the police said, began clearing the blockage when they were attacked by the angry residents who accused them of being gunmen and robbers. They also said the men were responsible for last Wednesday’s robbery and murder of Alston businesswoman, Gene Danville.

The driver of the car pulled his licensed firearm and fired several shots before speeding off in the direction of Spaldings, the police said. On the way, they were met by a police patrol from the Spaldings Police Station, which escorted them back to the station.

However, not long after, the police said that a crowd converged on the station, demanding that the men be handed over to them. Stones and other missiles were thrown, injuring seven cops, damaging the station building and eight police vehicles.

During the fracas, three persons were also shot. The dead teenager is John Farquharson of Christiana, Manchester. Also reported injured are Mark Roland; Anthony Smith; and Paul Byfield, an employee of CVM Television

Meanwhile, sub-officer in charge of Spaldings, Sergeant Raymond Walker, told the Observer that incidents of crime were very low in the area. “The area is comparatively quiet crime wise, but we are having a few cases of larceny in the Aenon Town, Borrowbridge areas,” Walker said.

“We had two robberies and one murder in Alston within the last month and the murder was last week,” he said, pointing out that he was surprised at the citizens’ behaviour although the accused men were not involved in crimes in the area.

Yesterday, Quallo said the CMU will remain in the area for as long as it is necessary. “We will be going for men wanted for murder, robbery, shooting and those who have stoned and set the station on fire,” he said.

Police Commissioner Francis Forbes, in the meantime, has ordered the Office of Professional Responsibility and the Bureau of Special Investigation to probe the incident.