THE police yesterday shot dead 29-year-old Derrick Watson who they claimed was among two men who fired at a police party along Red Hills Road, in the vicinity of the Dunrobin Primary School in Kingston.

A .357 magnum revolver, loaded with 21 rounds of ammunition, was allegedly taken from the dead man’s body, the police said.

However, the shooting drew anger from the dead man’s family and residents of Red Hills Road, who mounted a roadblock along Red Hills Road to protest against Watson’s killing. However, the demonstration was quickly broken up by the police, who kept the angry, placard-bearing residents on one side of the road.

“Unnu kill the man and him nuh do nothing,” said a female resident.

Meanwhile, Watson’s parents Yvonne Roberts and Cornelius Watson had to be consoled by friends as they mourned for their loved one.

“.Them kill me son,” Roberts wailed. “A fi dem gun them put pon him,” she said.

Roberts, a vendor at the nearby Dunrobin Primary School, claimed that she saw when the police ran towards the area where her son was at the time.

“Him did just come back from go look work because him never get none and him go over him auntie,” she recalled. “Me see the policeman run go up deh so me call him pon the phone and tell him seh the police a come. When the policeman see me him tell me seh, ‘come off of the phone duty gyal’.”

Roberts added that shortly after she heard a barrage of gunshots and was later informed that her son had been shot.

Sergeant Troy Anderson of the Constabulary Communications Network (CCN) told the Observer that the police were carrying out an operation in the area at about 10:00 am when they saw two men in a yard with guns. The men, he said, challenged the police and then ran and fired at the police. The police returned the fire, hitting Watson, said Anderson.