THE high command of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) has declared an official period of mourning for Detective Sergeant Kevin Mayne, who was shot dead at the Half-Way-Tree Police Station on Monday.

The period of mourning began on Tuesday at 2:00 pm and will end on Friday at the same time. All JCF flags will be flown at half-mast during the period of mourning.

In the meantime, the mood was sombre at the Half-Way-Tree Police Station in St Andrew on Tuesday, a day after Detective Sergeant Mayne was shot dead by a businessman after he disarmed a cop. The businessman, Deon Singh, then turned the gun on himself and was said to have also been shot by at least one of Mayne’s colleagues.

Winston Hunt, acting senior superintendent at the St Andrew Central Police Division, told the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday that counselling has started and will continue to be provided, especially those who worked closely with Mayne.

“As an organisation it is the norm after any tragic incident of that magnitude to engage services of the chaplaincy unit, medical services branch and support groups like peer counsellors to engage members and listen to their concerns and allow members to let out their emotions. If they are at risk we refer them for additional counselling and we do that on a needs basis to ensure that their mental health is taken care of. This morning we had an open session where members expressed their memories of their working relation and It was very touching. Some members wept openly but were consoled. There will be more sessions going forward,” Hunt said in an interview with the Jamaica Observer.

Most of Mayne’s colleagues were grief-stricken and could not speak, but some spoke of the good memories they had of the slain policeman.

A female colleague of the detective sergeant, who described the critical-incident stress-debriefing session on Tuesday as “lovely”, said that Mayne’s murder had unsettled things at the Half-Way-Tree Police Station, which is the divisional headquarters for St Andrew Central.

“I feel lost and empty. I can’t even feel myself. My colleague put down one piece of cow bawling in the place although she behaves as if she is tough. Imagine another one of our colleagues had to go to the hospital and see doctors standing and looking at a policeman who was just shot up. It hits you hard. He is the fifth police from the division who we lost since January,” she said, sharing that apart from Clarendon and St Andrew Central, Mayne was also stationed in the Kingston West Division.

Another female colleague stated that although she wasn’t close to Mayne she admired him and that she was jolted by the explosions and then by the sight of a policeman and another man lying dead on the grounds of a police station.

“I didn’t really know him well. I have been here a few years. Within those few years he was transferred here from Clarendon. When he came, I saw him as a good guy who took his work serious. Him don’t drop catch when it came on to his work. I didn’t see the incident unfold but I was inside the station building and we heard the gunshots and they all sounded like the bullets connected with its target. I thought it was happening nearby. When I learned that it was on the compound, I saw the wife of the businessman crying for her husband. The son was also crying. When we went around the back, we saw both of them on the ground,” she recalled.

Another woman cop said it was heartbreaking to know that such an incident could take place at a police station.

“We never experienced anything like this before. It’s heartbreaking. As you can see, the compound is very tense,” the policewoman said.