A seven-year-old, Romaine Edwards, was shot and killed in the rural St Andrew community of Lawrence Tavern yesterday during what the police say was a firefight with gunmen during a search for a gangster with the nickname Taliban.

Shortly after the mid-morning incident, with residents of the Mount Ogle area of Lawrence Tavern having blocked roads, the head of the Constant Spring police division, Superintendent Assan Thompson, pulled the cops involved in the shooting from front-line duty, sent their weapons for forensic and ballistic tests and called in the police’s Bureau of Special Investigations.

“I have since taken the officers involved in the shooting off front-line duty pending the outcome of the BSI investigations,” Thompson told the Observer.

Taliban, whose real name is Norris Brown, is wanted, the police say, on several counts of robbery, shooting and extortion.

A week ago bus drivers and conductors on the Kingston to Lawrence Tavern route struck for a day to protest the shooting of a conductor the day before and to demand greater police action against Taliban, who they accused of the shooting. Taliban and his gang, bus crews said, demanded up to $2,000 a day to operate in the area and intimidated those who did not pay.

Police say, however, they have had little co-operation from the same Lawrence Tavern residents who are also victims of Taliban’s robberies.

In the killing of little Romaine, police say that they were in search for Taliban and his gang when they ran into some of them, who opened fire on the law officers. The fire was returned, according to the police’s version of the incident.

The little boy was found discovered shot and killed after the firing ended, the police said.

But residents claimed it was wild, uncalled for police shooting — the same charge they made on Sunday when a young man was shot dead during what the police said was a shoot-out.

According to the police, they yesterday arrested a member of Taliban’s gang, Garfield Walcott, 26, of Halls Green, Lawrence Tavern.

It was not clear under what circumstances Walcott was held, but he is to appear in the Half-Way- Tree Criminal Court tomorrow to answer extortion charges.

In another incident in the Lawrence Tavern area, police said on Sunday they shot dead Wayne Edwards, 23, a member of the Joel Andem gang, which came to prominence earlier this year when a video recording with gang members frolicking, displaying guns and threatening police officers came to light.

A shotgun was recovered from Edwards, police said.

A policeman was reportedly shot and injured during that operation.