Cop was sleeping when man took his gun - residents

Residents of the Olympic Way, Kingston 11, are claiming that the policeman whose gun a man from the community grabbed yesterday, was sleeping at the time.

Odane Bennett, 23, from Hill Avenue, was shot dead after he took the cop's gun and ran into a bus where he was cornered and shot dead after reportedly pointing the weapon at lawmen.

But residents told THE STAR that Bennett, who was of unsound mind, saw the policeman sleeping in a marked vehicle near to the Olympic Gardens Police Station, with his M16 rifle lying carelessly beside him. They said he grabbed the firearm and fled after the policeman woke up and realised what happened. He ran into the bus where he was shot.

"The man deh inna the van a sleep careless with him gun," said one male resident, who questioned why the policeman would have handled the situation in that way, as Bennett was supposedly known to the police. "I want to tell you say the policeman know him good! That (police)man bring him go a hospital already too," he said. "Dem know say he's of unsound mind."

"Dem too wicked because the youth never supposed to get so much shot," said a female resident. "The man (Bennett) never did a point it (gun) at nobody,"

OF UNSOUND MIND

Another woman claims Bennett "does not look like somebody of unsound mind". "You can't know that he is of unsound mind because him nuh look nothing like that!" she said. "Him clean clean!"

The Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) is probing the matter. Head of the St Andrew South Police Division, Superintendent Arthur Brown, declined to comment on the residents' allegations.