SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — A man is in custody in connection with the murders of 43-year-old businessman Ricardo Sinclair and his 18-year-old son Ajani, who were both killed under controversial circumstances here last Friday night.

The man was reportedly accompanied to the Savanna-la-Mar Police Station by a politician.

“We believe that this man can assist us tremendously in our investigation,” ACP Ealan Powell told the Observer.

The killings sparked a fiery demonstration in front of the Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital by irate residents who accused members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) of shooting the two. Both Ricardo and Ajani were shot just metres from the hospital where the elder Sinclair operates a restaurant.

A strong contingent of police and soldiers had to be deployed to the area after unruly residents firebombed an old ambulance parked on the hospital premises, hurled stones which broke out the back glass of a police service vehicle, used debris to block the entrance to the hospital, and set fire on a section of the hospital compound between Friday night and Saturday morning.

On Saturday morning the protesters pelted the hospital premises with Molotov cocktails.

According to Maxine Blake, Ricardo’s distressed spouse and Ajani’s stepmother, she was inside the business establishment when she heard the explosions.

“Mi hear di shot dem a buss when me come out. Mi see mi husband pon the ground and see two police with guns say ‘don’t move’, so mi don’t know,” Blake told the Observer.

She further disclosed that she was told by a man who claimed to have witnessed the incident that her husband and his son were sitting outside the restaurant, when a policeman, clad in short pants, shot them shortly after emerging from a marked police vehicle.

“Him say him see a police radio car drive down and see the policeman come out the radio car in short pants and plaid shirt, shoot me husband and him son. Lord have mercy, me don’t know if is the badman them set up the police to kill me husband,” she said as she broke down in tears.

But Powell refuted the claims.

“The police responded quickly to the incident and we want to state categorically that the police are not responsible for these crimes,” the senior cop insisted.

The Independent Commission of Investigations is probing the incident.