Police kill Sea Lots man

A 20-YEAR-OLD man was shot dead in an alleged engagement with the police on Friday.

The man has been identified as Jerome Hospedales from Production Avenue, Sea Lots.

Police said officers from the Inter-Agency Task Force – Project Hope were on patrol on Production Avenue, when they saw Hospedales and another man sitting on a culvert. The police tried to search them and Hospedales allegedly whipped out a gun. Police, in fear for their lives, shot and killed him.

His mother Carlene Charles claimed he did not have a gun. Charles said she was watching the funeral of Andrea Bharatt on TV when she heard the gunshots and learnt that her son had been killed.

“There was a birthday lime and he had gotten a little intoxicated,” she said. “I told him to go inside and lie down. He asked me for a charger and I said to check in his dirty clothes. He checked and said it wasn’t there, like somebody gone with it and he walked out the gate.

"And after that I didn’t see him alive again. The next time, I saw him he was lying on the ground.

"When I heard the gunshots, I didn’t expect it to be him. He is not a disrespectful child. Even if you cuss him he would walk away and you would never expect is him getting cussed.”

Last year, 55 people were killed in police-involved shootings. The toll for this year is six.