Two weeks before the remains of Superintendent of Police Leon Clunis are laid to rest his family still has questions to pose in respect of his untimely passing.

One of them is: Was he set up by colleagues who had fed information to the gunman about the operation in Horizon Park in St Catherine, which also led to the demise of two of his companions — Corporal Dane Biggs and Constable DeCardo Hylton? Both were shot and killed, allegedly by a gunman who, to some family members, appeared to have been lying in wait for the cops.

One family member assured the Jamaica Observer last week that they had serious concerns about the official reports of the ill-fated event, and have employed the services of an attorney-at-law to assist with the probe into the matter.

“We don’t wish to go into any details about that, but we are concerned about what really happened and we are determined to get the facts,” a spokesman for the family said.

There is concern that because of the dead cop’s fearless approach to fighting crime, including those involving members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), that he may have been compromised by one or more member or former member of the force who had suffered the penalty at his hands.

There are also questions about his sudden death at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH), just as he seemed to be at a stage where he could have been released from the hospital to return home in a wheelchair.

Force officials have suggested that Superintendent Clunis was highly respected inside and outside the organisation, for what they described as his honesty and commitment to fighting crimes of all sizes and nature. Of the seven Clunis brothers, a clan which hails from Rock River in St Mary South Eastern, at least five are said to be connected to the security forces – the JCF and the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF).

Clunis died on June 30, just over two weeks after being severely wounded by gunshots allegedly fired by a Jamaican deported from Canada, Damion Hamilton. The gunman opened fire on the team Clunis was leading on a mission to do with allegations of the distribution of weapons and ammunition from a house in Horizon Park.

Clunis and his team were surprised by the gunman, Hamilton, whose father was also said to be a cop. The deportee killed Biggs and Hylton on the spot, before escaping to Cooreville Gardens where he was killed in another shootout with police.

“There is concern that the gunman seemed to have been expecting him. Nobody knew that particular man was there, and the intelligence was that they were to expect only small arms fire,” a relative of the slain superintendent related.

In fact, according to that relative, a different police team had the intelligence about the weapons at the house, but refused to carry out the operation.

“They got the intelligence about this guy, but they refused to go for him. My brother was in charge of operations in the area, so he had to go. There were arguments about the handing out of guns at the premises and a turf war had started within the state of emergency (SOE), and he was trying to keep things under control,” the relative volunteered.

“I don’t think he went there to kill anybody. They were surprised when they tried to enter the house. Bullets just started raining,” he added.

But, with Superintendent Clunis escaping with his life, there was hope that he could be kept alive and returned to a level of health that he could go home within weeks. He survived the next 18 days under treatment from health personnel at the KPH, and was about to be released from the hospital when he died, suddenly.

“He had recovered to the extent that he was constantly in his phone. He was expanding the kitchen at home at the time and he constantly called the workmen and reminded them how he wanted it done. So, we were preparing for his return home, in a wheelchair here he would be able to continue recovery at home,” one brother said.

The Observer reported on July 1 that Superintendent Steve Brown, a close colleague of Clunis, said he had been in touch with him throughout the day and was on his way to see him when he heard of his death.

“I just was not expecting this, because we had a long conversation this morning and he asked me to do some stuff for him because he should have been discharged today. He called me twice today and I was taking something to him and decided that I would take it to him when he got home. It just never happened,” Brown said.

Clunis’s family members were also expecting him home, and were convinced up to then that he was on his way to recovery, when they got the news of his death.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang and Opposition spokesman on national security Fitz Jackson also expressed surprise at his death in public messages.

The Clunis siblings were 14 in all, equally divided among the sexes – as they grew up in the St Mary community, also the birthplace of former Member of Parliament Harry Douglas.

Leon, affectionately known as Ernie, was the fourth brother to join the JCF, after declaring that the only career he would embark on was “as a policeman”. However, he eventually graduated from the Mona School of Business & Management with an MBA degree a few years ago.

He was regarded as one of the most dedicated, disciplined and determined commanders in the organisation.

He received several accolades during training. Upon graduation he was assigned to the Mobile Reserve and served on elite squads such as Operation Ardent, the Acid Squad, among others.

But he was not just an operations policeman. He had stints at the Office of the Police Commissioner, Professional Standards Branch, Detention and Courts and other administrative roles.

Perhaps his biggest impact was made at the Anti-Corruption Branch, where he led a team of police personnel to conduct investigations and carry out sting operations to arrest alleged corrupt members of the Force.

In 2010 while serving in that role he suffered personal injury on duty and was in a coma for days.

He also made a major dent in criminal activities in western Jamaica when he ran operations for the Anti-Lottery Scam Task Force.