THE two cops implicated in the fatal shooting of two men at Big Road Square, Glengoffe, St Catherine on Tuesday night were yesterday taken off frontline duties as the police’s Bureau of Special Investigations probe the killings.

The killing of the two – 71-year-old Edward Morgan, of Glengoffe, and Sam Austin, alias “Lightning”, of St Mary, led to a noisy protest by scores of residents who accused the police of murdering the two.

The police could not verify claims by the residents that there was an argument between Austin and the officers, arising from Austin’s smoking a marijuana spliff.

According to the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN), the police’s official information arm, at approximately 9:30 pm Tuesday, a group of police officers were speaking with a motorist along a roadway in Big Road Square when Austin allegedly attacked one of the officers with a machete.

“After managing to evade Austin’s initial attack, the officer, who came under attack again, pulled his firearm and shot Austin,” the CCN reported.

Austin was said to be of unsound mind.

The CCN added that some time afterwards it was discovered that Morgan, who was in the vicinity of the shooting, had also been injured. Both men were taken to hospital where they were pronounced dead.

Angry, protesting residents who later converged on the scene of the shooting set a police service vehicle on fire and blocked a section of the Glengoffe main road. A police officer, the CCN said, was attacked and injured by the residents.

The blockages were removed after senior members of the Police Area Five and St Catherine North Division addressed the residents.

Last night, Jamaica Labour Party spokesman on national security Derrick Smith yesterday called for speedy investigations into the Glengoffe shootings.

“Although the facts are still sketchy, it is quite evident to me that there was some error of judgement on the part of the two policemen involved in these killings,” Smith said in a statement.

Austin is the second person reportedly of unsound mind killed by a police officer since the start of the year. A man believed to be of unsound mind was fatally shot by an off-duty police officer along Hagley Park Road on January 8 after allegedly attacking the policeman with a knife.