TWO discarded pairs of slippers, a Glock pistol and 11 spent casings marked the spot in a Westmoreland cane field where Copeland Sankey, also known as Tupac, was murdered early Tuesday morning after allegedly being ambushed by rival gangsters.

Sankey was one of the six alleged members of the King Valley gang who were freed of gang charges in July 2020.

According to details reaching the Jamaica Observer, Sankey had been aboard a motor vehicle with two other men destined for the Crowder community in the parish in search of a man known as Big Youth.

According to sources, upon reaching the community the men kicked open the door to a dwelling in search of their target but did not find him.

The Observer was told that while travelling along a cane field road on the way from Crowder, the vehicle with Sankey was ambushed by a group of armed men who opened fire, and a shoot-out ensued.

All three men aboard the vehicle sustained injuries. The Observer was told that although the driver of the vehicle sped from the scene to Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital, Sankey was pronounced dead on arrival at 6:01 am.

A search of Sankey’s body was conducted and 18 live 9mm and 14 live 5.56 cartridges were found. A subsequent search was conducted of the motor car and one black 9mm pistol with an empty magazine was found. The two men who were aboard the vehicle with Sankey were arrested on reasonable suspicion of illegal possession of firearm and were placed under police guard.

A subsequent visit to the scene led to the recovery of a Glock 9mm pistol with no visible serial number bearing; four .40, seven 7.62 and four 9mm spent casings; one pair of blue and white Adidas slippers and one black and white Adidas right foot of slippers.

Sankey, along with five others, had been arrested in 2018 and charged on an 11-count indictment for being part of a criminal organisation; providing benefits to a criminal organisation; and conspiring to commit murder, rape and robbery with aggravation from as early as 2013.

They were, however, all freed after trial judge Chief Justice Bryan Sykes declared them not guilty, citing an absence of “support” for evidence given by the star prosecution witness as a huge deciding factor, a ruling which stunned investigators.

The star witness — who, over several days at the start of the trial in January when he testified via live video link from an undisclosed location — told the court that the alleged gang members, including himself, were involved in the deadly lottery scam, committed murders and rapes in the course of robberies, and were also murderers for hire.

The witness said he had, in 2018, handed himself over to the police and decided to give evidence against them after they killed seven of his own family members, including his father, aunt, two uncles, a cousin, his sister, and an in-law, in seeking to pull him out of hiding.