THE police are offering a $1-million reward to anyone with information leading to the capture of the men who murdered 27-year-old Special Constable Jermaine Bartley at his home in Irwindale Meadows, St James Wednesday night.

Bartley’s spouse was also shot and critically injured during the brutal attack in the housing scheme.

Yesterday, Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington advised the cop’s killers to give themselves up or they will be aggressively pursued and brought to justice by the police.

“Just saying to the criminals that did it that we are going to find them. Whatever it takes… we are offering a million-dollar reward for anybody who has any information at all, which could be used to assist us to get close to them. But we are going to find them and we are going to bring them to justice,” Ellington vowed.

“And people who treat our colleagues in this way must expect that when we come at them we are not going to be delicate. So it would be wise for them to turn themselves in,” he added.

According to Linda Green Francis, assistant commandant in charge of the Island Special Constabulary Force in Area One, about 7:45 pm Bartley, who was posted at the Barnett Street Police Station, was attacked shortly after he got home from work.

Bartley was accosted by three gunmen when he went outside his house to dispose of bones from his plate after having his dinner.

The gunmen ordered Bartley to lie down after he did not meet their demand for him to hand over a gun they thought he had.

The three criminals, one of whom dressed himself in the cop’s ballistic vest, ransacked the house in search of money.

Before leaving they put a bullet in his head, then shot his girlfriend, who up to late last evening remained in hospital in critical condition.

Yesterday, Ellington, who was attending the Police Officers’ Association conference in Montego Bay, told reporters that cops are deeply hurt by the brutal slaying of their colleague.

“It is something that has made us very angry. But it is not something that is going to break our spirits. We know that this kind of threat is constantly out there. We want to just appeal to our members to be calm, but at the same time raise their level of alertness and anticipation to this kind of threat. Be prepared to counter it whenever it faces them,” Ellington said.

“We are appealing to members of the public who have any information that they can share with us, because I am sure that the killers would have gone home last (Wednesday) night and there are family members who know what they did. I am saying to them that they are sharing some of the guilt, knowing that such a dastardly act was committed and they haven’t called the police as yet. So I am urging them to do that,” the commissioner said.

Police Federation Chairman Sergeant Raymond Wilson, who offered condolence to the slain cop’s family, asked the nation to pray for his grieving and seriously injured spouse, and noted the silence from police detractors.

National Security Peter Bunting said the cop’s murder “serves as a reminder that criminals are determined to unleash terror on the forces of law and order, as well as on the communities they try to dominate, even in the face of the current major anti-gang operations in Area One”.

Bunting also wished the slain cop’s spouse “a speedy and full recovery”, and extended deepest condolence to his family and loved ones.

Yesterday morning the mood at the Barnett Street Police Station was sombre. The Jamaica Observer was told that several cops cried openly and had to be comforted by the police commissioner who visited the station.