RESIDENTS of Tower Hill yesterday continued their protests against Friday’s shooting death by the police of a community resident, with two demonstrations in downtown Kingston – one in front of the Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights at Tower Street, and the other on North Street.

Bearing placards decrying the police shooting, the inner-city residents stood resolutely in the sun at North Street as they spoke in hushed tones about the fatal shooting of Peter Dobson. They had first staged a demonstration in front of the Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights.

Police say Dobson was shot during an operation at Calladium Crescent in Olympic Gardens after he disarmed a cop inside a house during a joint police/military operation in the community. According to the police, officers were inspecting an AK47 assault rifle and four rounds of ammunition they found inside the house when Dobson unsheathed a police officer’s weapon and was shot by another cop. He died in hospital.

But the protesters yesterday refuted the police’s version of the shooting and claimed that the killing was cold-blooded murder.

“Them put a pillow over him head and shoot him three time. Him never try nothing and we never see them come out with no gun. Is afterwards dem talk bout gun,” one protester, tears streaming down her face, said.

“If I had known that he was involved in wrongdoing, I would not be here standing in the sun protesting. He was not a wrongdoer,” another said.

The residents also claimed that the police had a number of men from the area lined up against a wall where they were searched. The police, said the residents, asked who was responsible for a nearby house and Dobson identified himself, after he was allegedly ordered inside a house.

Andrew Holness, member of parliament for West Central St Andrew, of which Tower Hill is a part, had hit out against the questionable killing which he said was the fifth police fatal shooting in the community in under a year.

“I have written to the commissioner of police regarding how the police operate when they enter Tower Hill. It is stretching the limit of imagination that Mr Dobson would seek to challenge a team of security of security officers that numbered up to 15,” Holness told the Observer.

Holness said the police had never arrested anyone for illegal possession of firearm in Tower Hill since he has been the member of parliament.

“We know that there are guns in the inner-city, but there are also good, decent people living in the inner-city. The police have no right to execute judgment which is what they have done to Mr Dobson,” Holness said.