Two police constables were brutally murdered at about midday yesterday by a group of heavily armed thugs, while patrolling a section of the tough, violence-prone south west St Andrew community of Trench Town, bringing to five the number of cops slain since the start of the year.

Constables Cornel Grant, 34, who was assigned to the Denham Town Police Station, and Delano Lawrence from the Admiral Town Police Station, were ambushed as they walked in a tight passage at the side of a house on Third Street with two other colleagues who miraculously survived the attack.

The killers took an M16 rifle and a 9mm pistol from the dead cops. A number of $100 and $50 notes on the ground where one of the cops lay suggested that his murderers went through his pockets before fleeing the scene.

Police Commissioner Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, who, accompanied by Deputy Commissioner Jevene Bent and other police top brass, was quick on the scene, extended condolences to the relatives of the slain cops and assured the public that the killings would not dampen the resolve of the police force to fight crime.

“This most tragic incident, the murder of two of our police officers, serves to underscore the grave dangers that our police officers face throughout the length and breadth of this country,” Lewin told reporters at the crime scene. “But I wish to assure all well-thinking citizens that this will only serve to strengthen the resolve of the officers in dealing with the monster of crime and violence in the country.”

Inspector Raymond Wilson, chairman of the Police Federation, which represents cops up to the rank of Inspector, questioned the commitment of both major political parties to dismantle garrisons and confront crime head-on.

“We have spoken about it over the years, we have spoken about the garrison arrangement and what it is facilitating, and yet all we hear is talk, we have not seen any physical attempt to remove any of these arrangements and to create a formal setting so as to ensure that the community gets the service from the police,” Wilson told reporters.

“The men were brutally murdered. They were executed; and I think that it is time that Jamaicans open their eyes to the reality. It is time that our government, whoever they are, understand the physical environment within which we have to police,” Wilson added.

Opposition spokesman on national security, Dr Peter Phillips, extended condolences to the family, colleagues and friends of both policemen and said that their brutal slaying was all the more disturbing as it occurred on Labour Day – “the day that our collective spirit of nationhood was called together in an effort to advance our communal psyche and brotherhood as a nation”.

“Today, we were called upon to work in unison and demonstrate our collective strength and creativity, and sadly at the same moment two officers from our ever thinning line of defence were gunned down,” said Phillips.

“We, the law-abiding, are forced once again to confront another ugly and brutal act of savagery against the Jamaica Constabulary Force at the hands of criminals who continue to threaten our peace and freedom,” Dr Phillips said. “The country cannot afford to cower in the face of this type of brazen attack against our law-men and on the civility of the nation.”

He renewed his call on the Government to “articulate a plan and tell the country how it intends to arrest this worsening security situation”.

Yesterday at the Denham Town Police Station, one of the cops who survived the ambush broke down and wept as he told colleagues of the frightening ordeal.

“I stood there and watched the men die and could do nothing,” cried the heavy-set cop, who had to be counselled by the station chaplain.

Grief-stricken colleagues described the murdered cops as “hard-working, jovial” persons, and noted that Grant, who was shot two years ago in the abdomen, had only returned to work four days ago after taking time off from the job.

Also at the station, the mother of Grant’s eight-month-old son wept bitterly, while gripping her stomach and exclaiming that she could not believe that he was dead. She, too, had to be counselled.

Ann Marie Benjamin, with whom Grant sired a four-year-old son, broke down at the murder scene and had to be escorted away by a few female officers who attempted to console her.

“Him was a good man, him don’t deserve to die like this,” another woman lamented.

– Additional reporting by Paul Henry