FIVE police officers charged with two counts of murder and wounding in the controversial Flankers shooting in October 2003 that left two senior citizens dead and another injured, appeared in the Kingston Circuit Court yesterday and were each offered bail of $750,000 with two sureties.

They were ordered to surrender their passports and banned from the Flankers community in Montego Bay for the duration of the trial period.

Their case is set for mention on September 23, when the matter of their representation is expected to be settled.

The five:

. Special Constable Metro McFarlane;

. Constable Bibzie Foster;

. Constable Kevin Willliams;

. Constable Kadian Smith; and

. Constable Donald Thomas, were described by their defence counsels, in their bail applications, as responsible citizens with strong roots in their respective communities, and were unlikely to pose a flight risk.

The court was told that a sixth police officer, Howard Hardial, of the Special Anti-Crime Task Force, who was also ordered charged with the Flankers shootings, was killed earlier this year by gunmen.

A large contingent of police officers including members of the Police Federation were on hand at the court to give their colleagues moral support.

Attorney-at-law K Churchill Neita QC, who is leading the defence team for the oficers, was not in court yesterday.

But in court yesterday, other members of the defence team – Valerie Neita-Robertson, Carolyn Reid and Debra Martin – made out cases for their clients, saying they were all responsible persons, and gave notice to Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Lewellyn that they intended to clear the names of all the officers, including the deceased Hardial, whose names, they claimed had been “sullied” in pre-trial publicity.

The lawyers told the court that one of the defendants, Donald Thomas, had cut short his overseas vacation, when informed of the trial in order to attend court.

In October 2003, two elderly men, taxi driver David Bacchas, 66, and his passenger, 65 year-old newspaper vendor Cecil Brown were killed, while Audrey Stephen, 65 was injured by the police, which led to a violent demonstration in Flankers, a poor community in Montego Bay.

Initially, the police had claimed that the deaths and injury happened during a gunfight, when a police party on an operation in search of guns and criminals came under fire, apparently from Bacchas’ taxi.

The police later said the shooting was accidental. Former police chief Francis Forbes and security minister Dr Peter Phillips later went to Flankers and apologised to the residents for the incident.

The police party was being led by Deputy Superintendent, Derrick “Cowboy” Knight, who at the time was the St James police crime chief.

Detectives from London’s Scotland Yard assisted with forensic analysis of the guns used by police in the shooting.