MORE than 50 irate residents of Central Village in St Catherine yesterday protested the police killing of Dean “Brixton” Thompson, of Big Lane in the community.

The group, consisting of mostly women and children who converged at the intersection of Mandela Highway and Little Lane in Central Village, used debris to block the roadway. Their placards read, “we want justice” and “Brixton is innocent”, even as they insisted that the police had murdered Thompson.

The police report that at about 7:00 am Tuesday, they came under gunfire from a group of men, while on operation in the community. They returned the fire as the men ran in different directions. Thompson, for whom the police said a warrant had been issued for shooting with intent, was later found suffering from gunshot wounds. He was subsequently pronounced dead at hospital.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Carl Ferguson, the operations chief for St Catherine South, said a loaded .380 semi- automatic pistol was also found at the scene. Three men who were wanted on charges of murder, shooting with intent and robbery were also held. Their names are, however, being withheld as they are to face a series of identification parades.

Yesterday’s placard-bearing protesters have, however, challenged the police’s version of the events. Thompson, they maintain, was taken out of a church at Love Lane, beaten and then shot by the lawmen.

“Brixton was inna brother Williams church at Love Lane, praying, at about 6:45 am when eight police come and grab him and say ‘p…y, wha you a do ya?’ and start to beat him,” said one woman, who claimed to have been in the church at the time.

“Them carry him in the churchyard, drag him down the lane and put him on the fence and shot him. Dem murder him and we want justice!” she added forcefully.

A blood-splattered zinc fence, 200 metres from the church to which she referred, was a grim reminder yesterday of what had transpired at the scene from which residents claimed to have picked up 26 M16 spent shells.

The Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI) has, in the interim, been called in to investigate the incident.