MONTEGO BAY, St James — The police have provided details on the gang ties of a man they fatally shot in Flanker, St James, on election day.

Twenty-four-year-old Peter Johnson was killed during an alleged shoot-out with police on Codac Drive. The incident, which occurred about 1:30 pm, was just metres away from the Flanker Primary and Infant School, which at the time was being used as a polling station for the local government election. The police said a gun was found on Johnson.

They also described him as a person linked to a number of crimes in Flanker and other sections of St James. The police version of events was rejected by residents who said Johnson had his hands raised when he was fatally shot. His mother also insisted that he was not a gunman.

However, on Friday Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) for Area One, Clifford Chambers provided details on what they know of Johnson’s connection to gang activity.

“He is a known ‘shotta’ for one of the gangs, the Alliance Gang, that is in Mount Salem. He has featured in four murders and three shootings,” the ACP told the Jamaica Observer.

“He was associated with a top-tier gangster and I guess he had been on the police radar for quite some time and has been the subject of several police joint military operations,” he added.

Chambers said the police are now looking at previous criminal activity to ascertain if any are linked to Johnson.

“Investigators are now using forensics to see if a hit can be established between other murders and shootings that took place in St James, particularly in Flanker and Norwood, to see how they can clear up some of these crimes that he might have been involved in,” he stated.

When Johnson was fatally shot by the police on February 26, some residents staged a brief protest. They insisted that he was killed in cold blood and the gun seized had been planted on him. The incident disrupted voting for about an hour and a half.