A small group of placard-bearing residents of Bull Bay, St Andrew yesterday converged near the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston, calling for the dismissal of the murder case against three cops they claim as their heroes for killing wanted man Noel Barnes in 1999.

“Him [Barnes] killed my baby father Mark Russell eight years ago and cut off him head and burn it and up to this day we can’t find the body. Barnes people are lucky they got his body to be buried. All now Mark no get a funeral,” said a woman who gave her name as Tasha.

“You cannot try innocent men for murder,” said another woman, who claimed that Barnes killed her cousin Marlon Smith, otherwise called John Flex, eight years ago. “They [the police] are our heroes! They saved us from Barnes.”

Another cousin of Smith’s told the Observer that she was not a lover of the police, but had to support the arrested cops because of how Barnes was ruthless.

The group, consisting of mainly women, stood outside the King Street entrance to the court while recounting how residents lived in constant fear of Barnes, who they said would rape, kill and maim without remorse. They said people were even afraid to venture outside their homes after 5:00 pm.

According to the residents, a mother and daughter in the community are now the mothers of a child each for Barnes, who had broken into their house and raped them.

The cops on trial are constables Kirk Nunez and Lerone Witter, both of the Elleston Road Police Station and District Constable Ukent Edward of the Bull Bay Police Station. The prosecution claimed that the policemen killed Barnes in cold blood.

The defence is, however, claiming that the cops were acting in self-defence on the night of August 27, 1999, when Barnes was shot more than 10 times.

Prosecution witness Detective Sergeant Lenworth Mellis of the Elleston Road Police Station testified in the trial, which started Tuesday, that the cops only opened fire on Barnes after he fired on them.

The police said that Barnes was wanted for several murders, shootings, rapes and robberies in and around the Bull Bay area.

When the three policemen were arrested and charged with murder on February 5, 2003, angry Bull Bay residents mounted roadblocks, calling for their release.