CLAIMS by members of the security forces that they were engaged in a shoot-out with gunmen when a 44-year-old disabled woman was fatally shot in August Town, St Andrew, in May, have been given some credibility by the watchdog agency probing the incident — the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM).

But the two Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) members who admitted to firing their weapons during the melee in which Susan Bogle was killed inside her house on Bryson Road on May 27 are not yet in the clear, as INDECOM is awaiting additional information before absolving them of any wrongdoing.

“At this interim stage we don’t have evidence or material to indicate who fired the fatal shot at Ms Bogle,” INDECOM’s Assistant Commissioner Hamish Campbell told a virtual media briefing yesterday.

According to Campbell, based on the casings of the bullets found in the area where Bogle was killed, INDECOM has concluded that other individuals who were not part of the security forces’ team also fired shots.

“We haven’t completed our commission’s report. [We are] still awaiting technical reports from elsewhere, and we want to do that as quickly as possible, but at this stage, we are unable to indicate that the JDF — there are only two soldiers who fired their weapons that day — are responsible for fatally wounding Ms Bogle,” added Campbell.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting of Bogle, several residents of August Town demanded “justice” as they challenged the claim by the security forces that they were responding to reports of gunfire in the area when they were fired on by gunmen.

The residents further alleged that the members of the security forces had tampered with the crime scene to thwart investigations into the killing of the woman.

But the members of the security forces reported that they were shot at by gunmen and returned the fire. They claimed that when the firefight with the gunmen ended, Bogle was seen in bed with a single gunshot wound to her chest.

That claim was supported by Jamaica Observer sources, who alleged that Bogle had been killed by criminals in a vendetta after one of her family members was accused of being involved in a murder in the eastern St Andrew community, which was in the throes of a gang war at the time.

During the media briefing yesterday, Campbell made no mention of the gang feud which could have led to Bogle’s killing, but he shot down the suggestion that the crime scene had been tampered with by members of the security forces.

“I don’t know any clue that the scene was tampered with or interfered with by the security services. Casings were found at the scene, which provided some important evidence in relation to what might have occurred. The evidence we had only through [members of] the security forces is that they responded to gunshots in the area, and then went to area where the gunshots were coming from. They reported seeing men armed with handguns.

“I think of importance is the recovery of casings which don’t match weapons submitted by the security forces. The one argument is that we have not been provided with all the weapons [held] by the security forces’ personnel, [but] we have an account of those present and their weapons have been taken and tested,” the assistant commissioner said.

He noted that three nine-millimetre casings were found on the scene, and that those came from two different weapons that were not of the kind issued to the members of the security forces who were there. M16 casings, not from the weapons fired by the soldiers, were also found on the scene.

“This is an indication that other shots were fired from within that yard in a particular time frame. That they were left there is indicative that something else was fired there,” argued Campbell.

“I think from the physical evidence and the ballistic findings, there is some conclusions we draw that other persons were firing at the security forces and the report from the soldiers that they, in turn, fired back at them. What is clear…one of those bullets hit Ms Bogle, so she has been inadvertently fatally wounded by somebody firing an M16 rifle,” declared Campbell.