SALT SPRING, St James- A crack team of detectives was assembled by the police crime branch to “relentlessly” hunt down heavily armed gunmen who shot three cops in a surprise attack on a police patrol before dawn yesterday in the volatile Salt Spring area of St James.

Last night, one of the three policemen was in serious condition in a Kingston hospital to which he was transferred after the gun attack that shattered the quiet of the sleeping district, now rapidly emerging as a flash point for criminality.

The other two cops were treated at hospital and sent home, police said. The names of the injured men were not released.

The Government and Opposition joined Police Commisioner Lucius Thomas in condemning the attack on the policemen, with National Security Minister Peter Phillips giving his “unreserved backing” to the Force to hunt down the gunmen.

“The attack in Salt Spring is a blatant and bare faced attack on the Police Force, but the JCF will not cower in the face of attacks like these,” Commissioner Thomas vowed in a statement. “On the contrary, attacks like these only serve to strengthen our resolve to continue to pursue criminals wherever they are to be found,” he declared.

Police said the three-member police party was patrolling Salt Spring when heavily armed gunmen opened fire on their squad car, hitting all three of them inside. At the Freeport Police Station on the Montego Bay waterfront, the Observer saw the bullet-riddled patrol car, its rear windshield completely shattered by what police said were high-powered weapons.

One policemen at the station complained that a single squad car was insufficent to patrol Salt Spring where rampaging gunmen three weeks ago killed 55-year-old shopkeeper, Victor Young, Arthley Campbell, 34-year-old chef, and Wesley Scott, 57-year-old caddie, all of Meggie Top in the area. They then turned their guns on a dog.

“It needs more than one car to patrol the area. One car can’t patrol an area like that,” the distraught policeman said.

The attack on the law enforcers came only hours after an appeal by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller for the St James business sector to rally their support behind a new crime initiative announced by Security Minister Peter Phillips to quell crime in the parish which has seen a record 167 murders so far this year.

“We have one challenge right here down here (Montego Bay), and I want you to give support to Minister Peter Phillips and to the police. We have to deal with the question of the level of crime and violence now taking place in Montego Bay,” Simpson Miller told a group at a cocktail party in her honour in the tourism mecca.

Phillips’ measures included a plan to establish a local branch of the highly successful Operation KingFish, the special task force targeting gangs and drug dons.

Meanwhile, commenting on the Salt Spring attack, DCP Charles Scarlett, who is in charge of crime, said a team of detectives had “been assembled to pursue relentlessly the men responsible”.

Scarlett urged residents to support the police with information to assist in the capture of those responsible for the attack on the three cops.

“We cannot as a society allow lawlessness to overcome those who seek to obey the law. In fact, an attack on the police as was the case last night is demonstrable evidence that there exists within this country those who are prepared to spread fear and to challenge the very institution of law and order,” said Scarlett.