ST CATHERINE, Jamaica — The close relatives of a man who was fatally shot during a confrontation with police officers in Lakes Pen, St Catherine on Thursday are crying foul over the circumstances under which their loved one was killed.

According to the police report, 23-year-old Richard Thomas was shot and killed during an armed confrontation with officers on operation at the location on Thursday.

The police said a Glock pistol with four rounds of ammunition was seized during the incident.

However, the relatives are disputing the police’s account of the incident, denying that Thomas had a weapon and alleging that police officers had been extorting money from Thomas for the sale of illegal gas and diesel fuel.

“When it touch Friday, you would feel like Lakes Pen a police station the way police down here a collect them money. They come sometimes, the boy dem run gone. If dem did have gun, dem wouldn’t run,” one relative shared.

The deceased’s mother further alleged that her son’s killers were involved in the illegal operations. She claimed his phone, which was confiscated at the crime scene, had contact numbers for the very officers who shot him.

“The gas oil in the yard belong to the same police dem. On the phone they took from him, their numbers are in the phone cause they are mixed up in everything so that’s why they hold on to the phone…The gas oil over there, they come and take them out because is dem make mi son have it,” his mother said.

“Police come for him already, carry him go out a station and let him go. Him nuh wanted by police, everyday police come to his yard for money so him can wanted by police and a pay police fi bandooloo oil,?” another relative asked.

The Independent Commission of Investigations is probing the incident.