RELATIVES of murdered ex-policeman Donovan McLean claimed Tuesday that he was like a sitting duck when his licensed firearm was taken away from him last year but that he was fighting to get it back.

McLean, who was 33 years old, was among a group of people gambling at a car wash in Caymanas Gardens, Portmore, St Catherine on Monday night, close to 10:30 pm, when a motor car drove up and three men, armed with guns, alighted from the vehicle and opened fire in the direction of McLean. He was shot multiple times and later pronounced dead at hospital. At least one other man was shot and injured in the incident.

Jamaica Observer sources said the man was out of intensive care at hospital on Tuesday afternoon.

McLean’s relatives believe that he would have had a fighting chance had his licensed firearm been returned to him.

They said that he was absolved of an alleged incident which occurred at a party during which guns had been fired. “He was to get lawyers to represent him to try and get it back,” said one relative.

“How can a member serve the police force for 10 years and you take his weapon, didn’t find anything on it and you don’t reach out to tell him why you still keeping the weapon? They have his gun for almost a year now. He served the force in a volatile area in Kingston East,” the relative said.

“If he had his weapon he could at least fight back. They took it away based on some allegations at a party where they said there were some explosions. They claimed it was him, however, when they made some checks on the scene [bullets] did not match his weapon. There is no witness on the case. Someone even came and made checks and still they didn’t give it back to him. The person who came to us said there was nothing to implicate him. No one called him, but he called [police] several times to get an update about his weapon,” the relative claimed.

A close relative said Tuesday that the family “is holding on”, while another fought tears to express anger, saying they were not happy with how his body was flung in the back of a pickup to be taken to hospital.