Board gun thugs terrorise motorists

The St Andrew South police have confirmed that thugs, some of whom seemed to be using pieces of board shaped like guns, yesterday held up and robbed several call centre workers along Spanish Town Road as they travelled home on a staff bus, the latest in a string of similar incidents in the division.

"I want to say that a group of men, some boys, some of them seemed to have board guns, with one or two with actual firearms, held up a bus along Spanish Town Road," said Superintendent Damion Manderson, the acting head of the St Andrew South Police Division. "It is something that we have been grappling with and I noticed for the seven months that I have been there (in the division), we have had several close occasions with them. We have done several manoeuvre tactics to intercept these fellows who seemingly attempt these activities, which would have spanned from Maxfield Avenue, Waltham Park Road and now this latest activity on Spanish Town Road."

The police said that the latest incident took place about 5 a.m. close to the Examination Depot on Spanish Town Road in Kingston. An alleged recording of the ordeal has since gone viral. In the recording, a woman is heard describing how the thugs, armed with high-powered rifles, ambushed the staff bus and assaulted the driver before escaping with valuables including cash and gadgets. According to Manderson, the criminals were able to ambush the bus after it had slowed down to safely manoeuvre a breakaway of a pavement along the road.

"The bad road condition forced the bus to stop or slow down to a point where they could have been hijacked so to speak," said Manderson.

He also told THE STAR that only three of the victims have since reported the matter to the police. He said the thugs appear to "go quiet" after committing crimes.

"That is because we would have increased our deployment along that thoroughfare and that would deter them for sometime. But these criminals are opportunists in nature and we will continue with some of our activities to catch them," he said. "We want to reassure the public that we will get through this because it is a big deterrent to law and order. But we are going to be engaging the community as well."