THE police yesterday shot and killed two men, seized four guns and charged five people with illegal possession of firearms during operations at March Pen and St Johns Roads in Spanish Town, St Catherine.

Angry residents of St Johns Road, however, charged that the shooting of the man in that community was cold-blooded and blocked the main road in the community to protest against the shooting.

The dead men were last night identified as:

. Wayne Wilson, alias “Byia” of 88 March Pen Road; and

. Rudolph Foster, otherwise called “Ninja” and “Steve” of 6 St Johns Road.

A third man, Horace Campbell, a 24 year-old labourer, also of 6 St Johns Road, was admitted to hospital suffering from gunshot wounds.

Four illegal firearms – two loaded 9mm pistols, a Ruga .38 semi-automatic pistol and a Llama .45 automatic handgun – and 34 rounds of ammunition were seized during the operations, the police said.

Those arrested and charged with illegal possession of firearm and ammunition and shooting with intent were:

. Dennis McDonald, 29, a ducoman of 58 St Johns Road;

. Dorell Stewart, 23, also called “Chineyman”, a labourer of 6 St Johns Road;

. Horace Sherwood, 30, mason of 38c Job Lane; and

. George Wignal, 39, also known as “Flyer,” a shopkeeper of 40 Job Lane, all of Spanish Town.

Superintendent Clifford Blake of the Spanish Town police told the Observer that at about 6:00 yesterday morning, a police party went to 88 March Pen Road when a group of heavily armed men dressed in military-type fatigues opened fire on them. He said the fire was returned and Wilson was shot and killed and the Llama .45 pistol taken from him.

Blake said that at about 10:15 am the police party moved to Kensington Drive in Westmore Gardens, opposite 58 St Johns Road where six men were standing at a gate. “Two men on the left pointed guns at the police who responded in self-defence and they (gunmen) were shot.”

The police superintendent said the Ruga .38 pistol was taken from Foster, the Braco 9mm from Campbell, the man admitted to hospital under police guard, while the Taurus 9mm was allegedly taken from four other men when they were searched.

Blake said Campbell was wanted on warrant for murder arising out of the killing three years ago of a Jamaica Defence Force soldier along the Old Harbour Road in Spanish Town.

The St Johns Road residents, who were protesting the shooting death of Rudolph Foster, blocked sections of St Johns Road, using old cars, refrigerators and tyres which they set ablaze, and prevented for more than 90 minutes four funeral processions from going to the Dovecot cemetery.

Mobile Reserve police were called in from Kingston and a back hoe was used to clear the blockage after the Spanish Town Fire Brigade put out the blaze. Residents claimed that Foster was killed in cold blood and that the other men were framed by the police who placed the guns on them as part of the conspiracy.

One woman said Dennis McDonald, one of the five held for illegal possession of firearm, had recently returned from London, England to bury his father Samuel, yesterday.

“Him (Dennis) only go a England three years now and him come back fe bury him father today (yesterday). So a de wake we a keep and him fren dem come visit him and 11 o’clock this morning police come shoot up the place,” she said.

One man, who claimed to be a witness of the shooting, said when the police arrived on the scene they went over to the men and started shooting. He also charged that one of the men in the group was a recent deportee from England, and said he found it strange that the police did not arrest him. “Dem tell him fe go home,” the man charged.