PARADISE, Westmoreland — Sceptical of reports that 20-year-old Jimoy Suckoo was accidentally shot when her cop boyfriend’s gun went off, her relatives and friends are demanding a thorough investigation of what happened in the Clarendon hotel room where she received the fatal wound.

“The detective at May Pen told me that she got the shot at her left side, lower to her breast. When I went to identify the body at Witter and Sons Funeral Home I saw a gunshot in her face, right between her nose and her upper lip,” her distraught mother, Nadine Suckoo, who lives in St Elizabeth, told the Jamaica Observer by phone on Monday.

“This doesn’t look right at all,” she added.

The mother said she had never met her daughter’s boyfriend but had seen him twice during his video calls with her daughter.

Jimoy Suckoo, also known as Janay or Nay, was a bartender who lived in Paradise, Westmoreland. Her godmother, Joan Barnes, who lives in the community, was visibly shaken as she wept and begged for answers Monday.

“She doesn’t deserve to die like this,” Barnes said.

“From last night I haven’t slept. I am traumatised. Nice pickney; everybody in the community loved her. Very friendly, decent pickney that just goes to work and comes in and makes her jokes,” Barnes told the Observer.

“We need the Government of Jamaica, Indecom [Independent Commission of Investigations], [and] everybody to get involved,” she appealed as she pointed to building blocks at the front of the board house she said Suckoo bought with plans to build a concrete structure.

The family’s fears are fuelled by a neighbour’s unconfirmed claim that there was a tense exchange, over the phone, between Suckoo and her boyfriend the day before she died.

According to a police report, Suckoo and a 28-year-old police constable were at Hotel Versalles in May Pen when she received a single gunshot wound to her chest from the cop’s service weapon, a Glock pistol.

The constable initially said he had placed the pistol on the bed his girlfriend was laying on, his back was turned, he heard a loud explosion, and when he looked around he saw that she had been shot in her chest.

According to the report, while at May Pen Police Station the constable gave another account of the incident. In that version he said he had decided to get something to eat and was removing his pistol from his leg holster in order to secure it when the gun slipped from his hand. In attempting to catch the gun, the constable said, he accidentally triggered the firearm which discharged a round in the chamber.

Police took Suckoo to May Pen Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Because of the “conflicting accounts of the incident” the constable is to be questioned further.

Indecom has also launched an investigation “to ascertain the full circumstances and actions taken which resulted in the weapon being fired”.

“The concerned officer’s gun was recovered and he provided an initial account to the Indecom investigative team,” it said in a release. “The incident scene was examined and the evidential material recovered, was processed, and packaged. The hands of the deceased as well as the concerned officer were swabbed for gunshot residue. The concerned officer was served with a Section 21 Notice, pursuant to the Independent Commission of Investigations Act, 2010, to submit a statement, and an interview will be scheduled.”

As she awaits answers about how her daughter died, Nadine Suckoo also has questions about her phone. She said Janay had two iPhones, but only one has been retrieved by the police.

“The other phone is active on social media. We want that phone,” she demanded.