THE police said he was killed after he opened fire on them, but the friends and relatives of Carvel “Ratty” Coley claimed that his gun never left his waist. He was brutally murdered, residents said, at Johnson Lane in Kingston on Tuesday night.

Residents of Leith Road, where Coley lived, blocked Chisholm Avenue in Kingston yesterday and angrily vented their feelings about the 24 year-old man’s death. The protesters – many of them women – bad-mouthed the officers on the scene and vowed to keep up their protest. They waved placards as they trampled along the debris-strewn roadway.

From snippets of their conversation, Coley was known in his community as the man who gave away money; a benefactor. He had run afoul of the law, through no fault of his own, and had to stealthily leave the USA, said one woman who identified herself as the mother of one of his children.

But the police painted a different picture.

They said they suspected Coley of having illegal guns stored at his home, and they had raided the location in the past. He was also suspected of being involved in the illegal drug trade in the US, said one lawman from the Hunts Bay police station.

According to the official police report of how the Leith Road man died, cops travelling in a patrol car said they saw Coley acting suspiciously and when they attempted to accost him he pulled a gun from his waist and fired at them. The cops returned the fire, Coley was hit and a Smith and Wesson revolver with three bullets taken from him, the police said. When the cops arrived with him at the Kingston Public Hospital, he was pronounced dead.

The shooting took place at about 9:00 pm.

Leith Road residents, including Coley’s mother, are not denying that he was carrying an illegal gun when he was accosted by the police, but claim there was no shoot-out.

“Him did have a gun on him and them search him and take it away,” said Coley’s mother, who refused to give her name.

“Them push him off and shoot him five time in him belly and one in him head.”

Obviously livid, she shouted obscenities at the cops who had come to the area to clear the roadway.

“Why you have prison? If you can take in a man take him in. Old murderers,” the distraught mother shouted.

Another resident blamed Coley’s demise on his friends.

“Him and them kick off last night and that’s why him take up the gun. Me feel say them tell the police about the gun,” the resident said.