A mentally ill man was fatally shot in May Pen, Clarendon, on Tuesday after he reportedly attacked an officer with a machete.
The man has not yet been identified by name. According to reports from Radio Jamaica News, residents in the area saw the man chasing someone hours before he was shot.
At the time of the shooting, officers were on patrol in the town when they saw the man wielding a machete and behaving violently near Stork and Bromanty Streets. The officers approached the man, who subsequently attacked one of them with the weapon.
After he was shot and wounded, the man was taken to the May Pen Hospital, where he was pronounced dead by doctors at the facility. The independent Commission of Investigation was informed of the shooting and has launched a probe into the incident.
One resident shared with the press that the man was a former cart vendor but appeared to start having issues after his mother became ill.
“Him use to sell socks pan one cart dung deh suh. One a di time dem him madda did sick. A round one a dem time deh him give up and him deh pan di road a do weh him a do. Him did a rasta but him get mad afta dat. Him always have it (the machete) and a threaten people wid it,” the man said.
