WATCH: Policeman intervenes, fires gun in cabbie dispute in St Ann
ST ANN, Jamaica – A taxi operator has been charged with unlawful wounding after a fight between the cabbie and his colleague in Claremont, St Ann on Tuesday which prompted a plain-clothes policeman to intervene and fire a gun.
Head of the St Ann police, Senior Superintendent Dwight Powell confirmed the incident.
“The taxi operators were fighting in the town of Claremont, where offensive weapons were drawn,” Powell told OBSERVER ONLINE. “One wounded the other so the policeman who was passing nearby the incident intervened and had to discharge his weapon to prevent escalation of the incident.”
A video of the incident has been circulating on social media. The footage shows one of the taxi operators using a weapon to hit the other before a third party said to be a policeman intervenes and fires two shots in the air.
It is understood that the dispute between the taxi operators was triggered by one of the cabbies refusing to withdraw his services in solidarity with his peers who had planned to stay off the job in protest against alleged unfair treatment by Government.
READ: Most St Ann cabbies back on the job
One of the taxi operators suffered non-life threatening injuries in the incident, Powell told OBSERVER ONLINE.