WATCH: Man fatally shot in St Thomas police operation
ST THOMAS, Jamaica — A man was shot and killed by police in White Hall, St Thomas during an operation Tuesday morning.
He has been identified as Franklyn Hyman.
The incident was captured by residents in a video now circulating on social media. The footage shows several members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) surrounding a house while a neighbour pleads for Hyman to come outside. Shortly after, gunshots are heard, and then four cops are seen lifting a body and walking towards police service vehicles.
The St Thomas police confirmed the incident but have not provided any further details.
Pointing to an injustice, his mother Shanna Johnson said her son was a “hard-working boy” who was killed for “nothing”.
“He’s a hard-working boy. Dem come here last week, Tuesday, searched him, go over his yard, threatened his girlfriend to go home cause it nah go pretty. Dem come back Thursday, carry him down, say they’re going to question him. They had him about five days. I have to get a lawyer to take him out because when the CIB (Criminal Investigations Branch) question him, nothing,” she said.
“Mi down a mi yard this morning (Tuesday), mi see when the jeep come up from Ridge, go up the road, by time mi fi run go up there, they run me back. By the time I was down here, mi hear the shot dem…Dem kill mi pickney fi nothing, nothing, nothing at all. Him nuh do nothing. Him a wake up this morning (Tuesday) fi go a work,” Johnson continued.
She added, “Nothing cyah go so, justice fi come inna dem something yah. The boy nah do nothing, nothing, nothing. They threatened him say they were going to kill him and they came this morning (Tuesday) and kill him.”