ST JAMES, Jamaica — People’s National Party (PNP’s) caretaker for the Montego Bay South Division, Gerald Chambers, is urging the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA) to conduct “proper screening” of applicants before issuing firearm permits.

“The FLA needs to conduct proper screening to ensure that unsuitable people are not granted permits, and this must include mental and physical examinations,” Chambers told OBSERVER ONLINE.

Him comments came today shortly after a St James-based security guard was placed under police guard at the Cornwall Regional Hospital after he was subdued and disarmed during an altercation with the police at Overton Plaza in Montego Bay.

The incident reportedly occurred shortly before noon.

According to reports lawmen from the St James Motorised Patrol Unit responded to a distress call at the St James office of the Passport Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) in Overton Plaza after reports emerged that the security guard, who had been working there for over a year, began behaving erratically, hurling abuse and destroying property.

The guard, who is employed to a private security company, then made his way to a pharmacy where he consumed medication, which was not prescribed and damaged items at the facility, the police said.

When the police arrived on the scene, the man threatened the team and later barricaded himself in a small room inside the pharmacy.

After approximately 15 minutes of negotiating with the guard, the team gained entry into the room, subdued and disarmed him.

His licensed Glock pistol was seized by the police during the process.

The guard was taken to the Cornwall Regional Hospital for treatment, the police said.

Chambers, who said he was in the vicinity of Overton Plaza when the event unfolded, surmised that the guard has a mental disorder.

“He became angry, held up people in the passport office and destroyed property before he was overpowered and taken to hospital,” he told OBSERVER ONLINE.

According to a woman who claimed to be an eyewitness, the security guard seemed mentally unstable, stressing that he was not provoked.

“It look like him kinda have a mental problem like him have relationship problem. I hear from him woman gone a foreign lef him and it look like him head tek him,” she said.

Mark Cummings