KINGSTON, Jamaica— Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate, Senator Donna Scott Mottley, says that this morning’s strike on a police vehicle in Spanish Town, St Catherine by gunmen, was an attack on the state.

Senator Scott Mottley, who joined her colleagues in the Senate in paying tribute to the two police officers who were reportedly killed in the incident, as well as two others who are currently hospitalised with serious injuries, noted that “these are people on the front line”.

“They are sworn to serve and protect, and so when they lose their lives, or are injured, in the line of duty, we all feel it very personally,” the Senator said.

“But, I will go a little further this morning to say that it is an attack on the state and, therefore, an attack on all of us. We will have to consider, at a more appropriate time, what we as a citizens will have to do, and remember the story of David and Goliath, because we will have to take on those who attack members of the police force and who do so deliberately and with grave intent,” she stated.

“But for today, I want to assure the JCF that we stand with them. That we mourn with them, and that our thoughts, our prayers and our best wishes go out to them,” she added.

President of the Senate, Tom Tavares Finson, who allowed members to comment on the incident at the start of the sitting, also offered condolences to the families of those officers who have died and those who were still being treated for their injuries.

He said that it is difficult to understand the incident, as it could be considered an attack on the state, but other issues may arise as the information become clearer.

“There is a high degree of uncertainty surrounding the whole matter. I think that it suffices to say to those who have succumbed, our condolences, and to those who are being treated for their injuries that we pray for them,” the president said.

Minister without portfolio in the Ministry of National Security, Senator Matthew Samuda, said that the incident had created a very “difficult” morning at the ministry, and advised the Senate that there was limited information available as to what had happened.

“Just to say to all the members, whom I have the privilege to serve with in this Senate, that we are at one in rebuking this sort of violence, and that the men and women of the Jamaica Constabulary Force can be assured that they have the government’s support. They have the support of my colleagues from the Opposition, and we will keep them in our prayers.

Leader of Government Business, Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, expressed condolences to the relatives and friends of the dead officers, and offered best wishes to those whose lives had been saved.

“We ask that the good Lord guide the hands of the surgeons who are attending to them, and we offer our prayers for their recovery,” she said.

A detective corporal and a constable were said to have been fatally shot in the incident, while a superintendent of police and a district constable were left nursing gunshot wounds, after gunmen opened fire on a vehicle carrying five members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force in Spanish Town, St Catherine last night. The fifth cop in the vehicle was also injured in the attack, but he was not shot.

The injured officers, all from the St Catherine North Division, were rushed to a medical facility by another colleague.

 Balford Henry