MANCHESTER, Jamaica — The family of one of two men fatally shot by the police in Mandeville, Manchester on Monday morning gathered in front of the Mandeville police station protesting his death while claiming he was not a criminal.
Relatives identified the deceased as Roshane Gayle, 34, otherwise called “Bunty”, a construction worker of Congo Hole near Southfield in St Elizabeth. The other man has not yet been named by the police.
Relatives claimed Gayle was a passenger in a Toyota Axio motor car, the driver of which he had asked for a lift to his destination, before he was fatally shot by the police.
However, head of the Manchester police Deputy Superintendent Odean Dennis said a high powered weapon was seized during the reported confrontation on Old Greenvale Road in Mandeville.
READ: WATCH: Two alleged gunmen fatally shot in Mandeville
Gayle’s mother, Lisa Parchment, recounted hearing of her son’s death while she was at home Monday morning.
“I was in my bed when two neighbours came by calling. I didn’t answer, but they went around the back and they said it looks like something really happened for true because Lisa is not here…. I heard when they said Bunty dead, so I jumped up and tried to call him. The phone rang without an answer,” she said.
“Trust me it is not easy, because my son is not a wrongdoer… me pickney dead innocent,” she added.
She said her son was in Mandeville visiting his girlfriend and was to return to St Elizabeth on Monday.
“He is well known in the community (Southfield), because the Member of Parliament even gave him a ticket to go on the farm work programme and he was waiting on a call to go in… I need justice,” she said.
Other relatives huddled together at the Mandeville police station as they protested over the fatal shooting.
“He doesn’t have a criminal record. Right now if you go down to St Elizabeth everybody knows he is not a wrongdoer,” said a family member.
— Kasey Williams
(Video: Kasey Williams)