FREEMAN’S HALL, Trelawny – Controversy surrounds Sunday’s fatal shooting of two members of this South Trelawny community and the injury of another. One of the victims was said to be of unsound mind.

The dead men have been identified as David Holmes, a 36 year-old peanut vendor and his brother-in-law David Minto, a 25 year-old labourer.

Yesterday, residents of the normally quiet community demonstrated at the gate of the Ulster Spring Police Station, claiming that the men were shot by two lawmen assigned to that station.

One man, who claimed to be an eyewitness, said he recognised the shooters as two cops who are assigned to the police station in the community. He alleged after the shooting they left in an unmarked car.

The police, however, disputed the claims by the residents. They said that at about 8:00 pm Sunday a gunman opened fire on a group of men who were standing in front of a shop in Freeman’s Hall. Holmes, who was among the group, was reportedly hit in the head during that attack and was later taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead, the police said. Another man whose identity the police have not released was also shot in the incident. He is now a patient in hospital.

According to the police, shortly after that incident the attacker reportedly shot and killed Holmes in another section of the community before escaping on foot.

Yesterday, irate residents, some chanting “murder”, claimed Holmes was not a wanted man and that the police knew that Minto was mentally-challenged. They said that at times the Ulster Spring police assisted in taking Minto to the hospital to get his medication.

The residents were further infuriated when they were not able to locate the bodies of the men which were removed by the police.

“Me want fe see me brother. Me want Dave. Me brother don’t do anything,” one of Holmes’ grief- stricken sisters wailed.

She was one of three female members of the community who had to seek medical assistance at the Ulster Spring Hospital after fainting.

The killing of the men was a double blow to Andrea Minto, who is the common-law wife of Holmes and the sister of the other deceased man.

She could not hold back the tears.

She said that she was distressed that two of her loved ones were killed a day after she helped in the return of four of the men who escaped the Clarks Town police lock-up last week.

Three of them were awaiting trial for murder in the death of Detective Constable Clinton Degouthe, who was killed nearly a year ago during a gun battle with criminals in Trelawny.

Among those she accompanied back to police lock-up were her son Tommy Sawyers and her nephew, Gavin Reid.