A taxi operator trying to escape a police dragnet led law enforcers on a high-speed chase that triggered panic in the busy Half-Way-Tree commercial district yesterday.

People claiming to be eyewitnesses said the chase, that started on Constant Spring Road, saw the taxi operator weaving in and out of traffic with the police, their guns drawn, in hot pursuit.

Sounds of gunfire erupted as the chase unfolded. The loud explosions sent people on the streets running for cover.

“Is more than 15 shot dem fire while dem a chase the youth. See the spent shell dem here,” said one taxi operator who, minutes after the incident, joined his colleagues in a protest over the incident.

The Jamaica Observer was told that two men who were travelling on the road when the chase started were mowed down in the incident. Police, up to late yesterday, said they were checking to confirm whether there was any truth to that report.

Late yesterday, a policeman gave the constabulary’s side of the story.

He said that about 7:30 am officials from the Transport Authority and members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force were carrying out an operation on Constant Spring Road when the driver of a vehicle was signalled to stop.

The female driver was eventually impeded by a line of peak hour traffic in the vicinity of Twin Gates Plaza, where the vehicle was seized.

According to the cop, that was when a mob converged on the scene and, in the process, a police officer was assaulted and three vehicles belonging to the Transport Authority and Jamaica Urban Transit Company were damaged by the mob.

Police said while that was unfolding another driver, who attempted to obstruct the police operation, was also told to stop. He ignored the order and led the police on a high-speed chase through the streets. He was eventually held on Spanish Town Road, more than two miles away.

A release from Transport Authority corroborated the policeman’s story.

However, a group of angry private transport operators took to the streets and staged a protest at the front of the Transport Authority office, stating that the claims made by the police were not true.

“The reports the authorities are giving are not true. The police dem see the woman a drive her car and just come an’ a order di woman to come out of the vehicle, so the woman seh she not doing it because she didn’t do anything wrong,” said one taxi operator.

“The police dem jus’ come and start lick her windscreen. Another police took out a knife and punctured the four tyres on the woman vehicle,” another taxi operator claimed.

He said the way in which the transport authority officers were treating the female driver triggered an angry reaction from the group of operators who had by now gathered at the location.

“While them over there a treat the woman a way, someone from in the crowd threw an object and it damage one of the vehicles that was being driven by a Transport Authority officer,” he said.

“When this happen, all hell broke loose. One of the police pull him weapon and start fire wild,” said one driver, who showed some spent shells allegedly left behind by the policemen.

“While dem a fire, dem start chase another taxi driver. When the youth see the police a come towards him with the gun, he panicked and started to drive away. This was what led to another chase through the streets,” said another operator.

The taxi operators also said the protest was started by operators who feel they are being unfairly targeted by Transport Authority officers who were telling them that it was illegal to carry four people, including the driver, in their vehicles.

“We are having a mass demonstration of hackney carriage operators. These are legal operators. We are making public our concern how the Transport Authority is dealing with taxi operators,” said Everton Styles, vice-president of Jamaica Association of Transport Owners and Operators.

Styles claimed that, by law, hackney carriage operators are licensed to carry four people, including the driver, but when this was done drivers were being pressured.