COMMISSIONER of Police Francis Forbes yesterday announced that Assistant Commissioner of Police Osbourne Dyer will head a team which will, within 14 days, carry out a full investigation into last week’s killing of two women and two men in Crawle District, Clarendon.

The team will also probe claims by Jamaica Labour Party member of parliament for the North Central, Pearnel Charles, that the Reneto Adams-led Crime Management Unit (CMU) had planted the two guns which they said had been recovered at the scene.

On Monday, Charles gave the police commissioner 24 hours to investigate and speak on the issue of the two recovered guns, or, he warned, he would tell all.

But yesterday, Forbes told reporters that based on advice from “firearm experts… the records do not support” allegations that the guns had been previously recovered by lawmen.

The police’s information agency, the Constabulary Communication Network, the commissioner said, had erroneously reported numbers seen on the rifles’ barrels as their serial number. Attempts were being made, he said, to ascertain the correct serial numbers and these would be made public.

But he withheld judgement on allegations that the rifles had been planted.

“With regards to allegations of the guns being brought to the scene by the police, I have to rely on firm evidence from a full investigation,” he said reading from a prepared text. “In this regard, I have now appointed Assistant Commissioner Osbourne Dyer, an officer of utmost integrity and a very knowledgeable and experienced investigator, to oversee the entire investigation.”

Last Tuesday, Angela Richards, 44; Lewena Thompson, 39; Kirk “Matthew” Gordon and a man identified only as Renegade, were killed in what the CMU described as a shoot-out, but what residents maintained was a clear case of murder.

There were initial reports that the CMU was in the area, in connection with reports of extortion at the community’s AusJam gold mine but that was later rejected by police high command as well as the miners.

The official police line is that the CMU was in the area in search of wanted men and approached a house where it was suspected that a group of armed persons was hiding.

The end-result was the slaying of the two men and two women and the CMU’s report that they had recovered a Winchester shotgun with 14 rounds of ammunition and a Taurus 9mm pistol with six rounds, inside the house.

There has been widespread public outcry over the incident, which has been compared to the 2001 Braeton shooting in which members of the CMU shot dead seven youths in a St Catherine house.

Yesterday, the police commissioner urged persons with information to come forward and give written statements that might assist with the investigation. Forbes also promised that the public would be advised if the investigation’s 14-day deadline cannot be met, and supplied with a new date for the investigations to be wound up.

In the meantime, he promised to investigate reports that Adams, the head of the controversial CMU who has been removed from front line-duties, had yesterday arrested a man believed to have been involved in the Crawle shooting. But he made it clear that it was acceptable for any officer involved in the Crawle incident to apprehend persons who had traded shots with them during the alleged shoot-out.

Describing Adams as a good, tough cop, the commissioner added that the controversial crime fighter sometimes fell prey to the media.

“I think he’s a good cop, a tough cop, but he’s also very controversial,” he said. “He’s a media darling and sometimes the media sets him up. Different journalists treat him differently. Some people have the utmost respect for him while others have none at all.”

Meanwhile, Charles told the Observer last night that the police chief assured him, following a meeting yesterday, that all the policemen involved in the incident would remain off front-line duties, pending the investigations and the submission of the report.

The MP, at the same time, promised his full co-operation with the investigations.