A Jamaica Defence Force solider, whose responsibility during the May 2010 operation to apprehend then Tivoli Gardens ‘don’ Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke was to help secure sections of the community, testified yesterday that police shot and killed two young men in the community.

“A bare foolishness di police dem a keep up,” Soldier Number One said in a section of his statement read to him by head of the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) Terrence Williams during the Tivoli Enquiry at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston.

During cross-examination from Debra Martin, one of the attorneys representing the Jamaica Constabulary Force, the soldier, who was assigned to the Second Jamaica Regiment, testified that he saw a group of five or more police officers 15 metres away from where he was standing at the intersection of DC Tavares and Chang avenues.

He told the enquiry that the lawmen were standing three metres from the house in which he saw the bodies of the young men, who moments earlier had been alive.

“I heard when they asked the occupants who is inside the house. The mother said she and her two sons. They told the mother to come out and the two sons should remain in the house. They told her to proceed to the area where they had a cage…,” he said.

He added: “I heard the police speaking to the two young men. I heard explosions [that] sound to be gunshot… coming from the direction where I heard the talking.”

The soldier testified that before the shooting he heard one of the policemen saying, “…a shoot you ago shoot mi?” He said he could not see what the policeman was responding to.

A minute after the explosions, he said, he went to the area and saw the bullet-riddled bodies of the two men.

During cross-examination by Queen’s Counsel Garth McBean, the senior attorney for the commission, the army man said he withdrew from the area and relayed the incident to a lance corporal.

“Did you see any guns in that area?” McBean asked.

“No, Sir,” he responded.

“Did you see the police with any guns in the area?” McBean asked.

“Yes, Sir,” the soldier replied, “M16 rifles.”

He had told the INDECOM boss earlier that he could not identify the policemen involved in the shooting because their faces were concealed with balaclavas. He said he could not remember if the policemen were wearing identification numbers.

A second soldier was scheduled to give evidence today but this has been pushed back to Monday due to a medical emergency.

The enquiry, which is looking into the circumstances surrounding the death of 73 people during the operation, will continue today with evidence from residents of Tivoli Gardens.