A police constable assigned to the Mobile Reserve Division in Kingston was shot and injured Saturday night, hours after the killing of one of his colleagues and the injuring of another.

The police say the 26 year-old constable was shot by one of two gunmen who held up and robbed passengers in a cab in which they were all travelling.

According to the official police report, the constable was shot at about 8:20 pm as the cab travelled along Old Harbour Road, heading towards May Pen. As the taxi neared Rhoden Pen, the police said, one of the passengers pulled a handgun and ordered the cabbie to stop. He did.

“The gunman and his crony got out of the car and demanded money from the driver,” said the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN). “They then reportedly grabbed the lawman’s bag and shot him before escaping on foot in the area.”

The constable has been admitted to hospital and his condition is considered serious.

Meanwhile, Constable Denton Davis, who was stabbed as he responded to a loud noise complaint in Morant Bay, St Thomas early Saturday morning, was transferred to a hospital in Kingston where he underwent emergency surgery. According to the CCN, his health had deteriorated before the surgery but he is now stable again.

Constable Davis, who was stabbed twice to the chest, was attacked less than an hour after Constable Peter Nembhard was gunned down by a group of men who opened fire on his car. Nembhard, who was assigned to the Special Anti-Crime Task Force, was the 11th cop killed in the line of duty this year.

The weekend attacks on lawmen have been condemned by National Security Minister Peter Phillips, Police Commissioner Francis Forbes and the Police Federation, which represents the Force’s rank and file members.

“From the information available to us on the ground, Constable Nembhard was killed because of the simple fact that he was a policeman,” said the Federation’s general secretary Corporal Hartley Stewart. “We are very concerned that Constable Davis was deliberately and blatantly attacked, having properly carried out his duties as an officer of the law.”

He added: “We need to take a stand now. Give up no further ground to those who benefit from mayhem and disorder.”