WESTERN BUREAU – The Montego Bay police yesterday claimed they were close to a breakthrough in Sunday’s fatal shooting of police constable Joshua Brissett in Tucker Irwin, St James.

“We are pursuing the investigations vigorously and we have some suspects, and so we are hoping to bring the matter to closure soon,” said Superintendent John Morris, crime chief for the Area One police division.

The incident occurred at about 3:20 pm while the 36-year-old police constable was at a shop.

It is reported that two armed men drove up to the shop in a white Toyota motor car and demanded money from customers.

Brissett, who was in the shop, challenged the gunmen, and during a struggle he was shot in the abdomen.

The gunmen fled the scene in the motor car.

Within hours of the killing, crime chief for St James, Cleon March, told the Observer that the police were already making “progress” in their investigation of the incident.

Constable Brissett, who has been a member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force for more than six years, was assigned to the Westmoreland division.

However, he was recently transferred to St James where he was stationed at the Montpelier Camp, where Haitian refugees are being housed.

Yesterday, Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas condemned the killing and said that Brisset’s death was a further display of the blatant disregard for human life by some elements in the society. He called on Jamaicans to align themselves to law and order and be unwavering in their will to stamp out “this scourge”.

“To do otherwise only lends support to the evil such as Constable Brissett’s killing,” he said.

The Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) deputy spokesman on national security Clive Mullings, in whose constituency the killing occurred, described the shooting as “a wanton act of murder which continues unabated across the country”.

Mullings said the incident “underscores the fact that both citizens and police officers alike are under the tyranny of the gun”.

Condemnations of the killing and condolences to Brisset’s family also came from the Jamaica Police Federation, which represents rank and file members of the force, and National Security Minister Dr Peter Phillips.

Brissett is the first cop to be killed this year. In 2004, 11 policemen were murdered.