This shit seems fishy...a 2 person company gets a 300 millions contract??
This shit seems fishy...a 2 person company gets a 300 millions contract??
CONVICTED entertainer Vybz Kartel told the police the whereabouts of several wanted men in Portmore, St Catherine and provided the authorities with information that led to the recovery of 17 illegal firearms, a highly-placed police source has disclosed.
The move by the embattled entertainer was part of an effort to gain his freedom, or at least a vastly reduced prison sentence, the police said.
The startling revelation came to light during a Jamaica Observer interview with a member of the constabulary's top brass late last week.
"He wanted to meet with the commissioner who assigned a member of the high command to meet him. During the meeting he offered information on wanted men in Portmore and also coughed up a number of illegal firearms. He was trying to broker a deal to get the charges dropped," the source said.
The police said several wanted men were subsequently nabbed.
Kartel along with André St John, Shawn 'Shawn Storm' Campbell and Kahira Jones were all found guilty and slapped with life sentences for the murder of Clive 'Lizard' Williams, who police say was bludgeoned to death at a house in Havendale, St Andrew, on August 16, 2011.
The men will have to serve 35, 30, and 25 years respectively if the Appellate Court throws out their appeals, which will likely be heard in a minimum three years from now, based upon the pace at which such appeals are dealt with.
According to the police source, the artiste made the offer when he realised that the walls were closing in on him, after homicide investigators were sealing up their probe into Williams' murder.
The police also said that Kartel and a funeral director also met with a top-ranking cop after a probe was launched into whether or not Williams' remains were cremated.
Police are also probing the disappearance of funeral home operator Jennifer Edwards, who went missing in January.
The police said evidence was suggesting that Edwards was killed and her body disposed of as she had knowledge of sinister dealings relating to Williams' body.
"We believe she was killed because she was the weak link and she knew too much, but we are still investigating," the source said.
Last Wednesday, Police Commissioner Owen Ellington drew the ire of defence attorney Tom Tavares-Finson when he declared that Kartel (real name Adidja Palmer) was the boss of a criminal outfit that was responsible for more than 100 murders.
Tavares-Finson could not be reached for comment on the latest allegation as the Sunday Observer prepared for a press deadline.
The Sunday Observer source went even further and named a well-known gang based in several Spanish Town communities, as the gang that the commissioner was referring to.
"He was very influential in the Klansman gang. That gang used to carry out his killings for him until his Gaza Empire started doing the murders themselves. We have footage of him and a leading Klansman member bragging about the best places to kill people, whether in the church or other places. That Klansman was heard bragging that he shot eight people in a church already," the source said.
The Sunday Observer has also been informed that the police have in their possession additional footage of the video that was shown in court where men were overheard planning murder.
The footage, the source said, showed a headless body, believed to be that of Williams, lying on the floor.
It was not clear why that was not entered into evidence during the recently concluded trial.
Shawn Campbell, another police source said, may have been a victim of loyalty to the 'Worl' Boss' as he now faces the possibility of serving a 25-year sentence after refusing a deal to plead guilty to accessory before or after the fact and serve a
three-year sentence.
The police said that Campbell may not have known that Williams and the prosecution star witness Lamar Chow were earmarked for death when he accompanied them in a taxi driven by a man known only as 'Need For Speed', to the ill-fated house.
"We have information that he was under the impression that the men would be beaten for their carelessness in the disappearance of the two guns. When he arrived, we heard he was surprised to see so many strange men, who we believe to be members of the Klansman gang, and that is why him tek weh himself.
"We know that it is only after the voice notes were revealed that he became aware that he, too, could have been harmed over the guns. Maybe he would have acted differently if he had heard some of the things that came out in court," the source said.
All four convicts are now being housed in a maximum security section of the New Horizon Adult Remand Centre on Spanish Town Road in Kingston where high-risk inmates are kept at the State's pleasure.
Indianapolis police chief calls fatal shooting of unarmed driver a 'tragedy'
Indianapolis Police Chief Bryan Roach didn’t mince words after he sat down behind a microphone Thursday to discuss the fatal shooting of an unarmed man by two police officers.
The death of 45-year-old Aaron Bailey was a “tragedy,” Roach said.
“This is something that every city, every chief of police, every community, every mayor, hopes that never happens.”
Police said a north-side traffic stop early Thursday morning led to brief chase, a minor crash, a driver who reached down in his car and two officers who fired.
“I probably really screwed up by not having a prepared statement for you,” Roach said during an afternoon news conference at the City-County Building, “but I wanted to come out here and at least share the feeling and the emotion.
“This is a problem and an issue that not only affects this police department, your chief of police, your mayor, but the community as a whole,” Roach said. “And my expectation is that all of those entities and all of us can have an open and clear discussion as we move forward, to the extent we can, within the parameters of the process.”
Bailey was black. One of the officers involved is white, the other is bi-racial.
Messages left with the president of the Fraternal Order of Police were not immediately returned Thursday evening.
A Justice for #AaronBailey rally is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Friday at City Market. Dominic Dorsey, founder of social-justice advocacy group DON’T SLEEP, said he was angry over the shooting.
“There's no reasonable explanation or excuse for what happened,” Dorsey said. “None.”
The circumstances behind what occurred shortly before 2 a.m. Thursday is only beginning to be known. Here is how authorities described the events:
Two police officers stopped Bailey’s vehicle about 1:45 a.m. near Burdsal Parkway and East Riverside Drive. About 10 minutes later, Bailey and his passenger suddenly took off. A police chase ensued, but after about a minute, Bailey crashed his sedan into a fence near the intersection of 23rd and Aqueduct streets.
As the two officers approached, Bailey reached down toward the center console. Both officers fired their weapons. Bailey was pronounced dead 30 minutes later at Eskenazi Hospital.
The passenger, 26-year-old Shiwanda Ward, was unhurt. She was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of drug paraphernalia and taken into custody.
The two officers, who joined the department in 2014, have no disciplinary records.
Roach said that because the prosecutor’s office is conducting a criminal investigation, the officers have not yet given a statement to the police department. Many details remain unclear, Roach said, regarding what the officers and the vehicle’s occupants heard, saw, said and did. Roach said he did not know why Bailey was initially pulled over.
“I know all of us would like to have those answers now, including me,” Roach said. “I’m just like you are, and being a policeman, I may have more questions than you.”
Mayor Joe Hogsett said residents expect that IMPD will “stringently follow protocol” by fully investigating and reviewing the matter. “We will continue to engage local faith and community leaders to reiterate a commitment to handling this process with openness, transparency, and compassion,” he said in a statement.
IMPD vehicles are not typically equipped with dash cams, and the department does not have body cameras for its officers. Police said Ward is the only other known witness to the shooting.
Roach said that to follow departmental policy, the officers would have had to have had a reasonable expectation that their lives, or the lives of others, were endangered before they could use lethal force.
“We have to assume that that was the mindset of those officers when they pulled that trigger,” Roach said.
Bailey had amassed 11 felony cases since 1996, including convictions on charges of resisting law enforcement, battery, drug possession, robbery and auto theft, according to online court records. A Feb. 2 charge of theft is pending.
Roach said the officers involved in the shooting would not have had time to conduct a thorough background check on Bailey. But it remains unclear whether the two officers knew who Bailey was.
The Rev. James "Dynamite" Black, a volunteer with the Indy Ten Point Coalition who visited the scene, said he understands that many people are feeling emotional in the wake of the shooting. With so many raw feelings and lingering questions, the desire to take action is often strong.
But Black, a Ten Point volunteer for nearly a decade and founder of Stop The Violence In The Streets Indianapolis, urges residents to wait until more is known before taking a firm stance or lashing out.
In times like this, he said, action without understanding may lead to further loss and heartbreak.
“Step back and wait. We don’t have all the information on it just yet, so we need to wait and not create a more violent situation,” he said. “We should focus on coming together and praying on it because it impacts everybody.”
Bailey's death is the first fatal police shooting of the year. IMPD recorded three fatal police shootings in 2016, eight in 2015 and four in 2014.
Indianapolis Mayor, Police Chief: Fatal Shooting a 'Tragedy'
Indianapolis' police chief calls the shooting of an unarmed motorist a "tragedy" and says he assumes the officers involved believed their lives were in danger.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indianapolis' mayor and police chief called the fatal shooting of an unarmed motorist by officers Thursday a "tragedy," and the chief said that criminal and internal affairs investigations were underway.
The motorist whom coroners identified as Aaron Bailey, 45, sped away after being pulled over by police about 1:45 a.m. Thursday, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said. Officers chased the vehicle and, after it crashed into a fence, shot the man, Sgt. Kendale Adams said.
Police later searched Bailey's vehicle but said they found no weapon, The Indianapolis Star and WXIN-TV reported.
"The loss of any life in our city is a tragedy, and my thoughts and prayers are with all individuals and families affected," Mayor Joe Hogsett said in a statement. "Our residents expect that IMPD will stringently follow protocol by fully investigating and reviewing the actions that were taken."
Police Chief Bryan Roach said he assumed the officers involved believed their lives were in danger.
"As a department our heart goes out to that family," Roach said. "This is something that every city, every chief of police, every community, every mayor ... hopes never happens."
Roach said he expects the officers involved will at some point appear before a grand jury. After that occurs, officers can give their statements to IMPD. Until that happens, Roach said he will not know exactly what happened.
The two officers involved in the shooting were not hurt. They have been placed on routine administrative leave. Their names were not released.
Adams said not finding a weapon was not an indication the police use of force was not justified.
"Just because you don't find a weapon does not mean that it can't be reasonable" to use force, Adams told WXIN. "Obviously, there are a lot of factors that go into that when officers have to make that decision."