Former football star killed by police

As residents of Craig Town in western Kingston prepared to bury an elderly neighbour on Sunday morning, gunfire erupted less than 100 metres from a nearby church.

The funeral preparations paused. A church service adjourned. By late morning, the community found itself mourning again. This time, 55-year-old Lucien Anderson, a former Arnett Gardens football star, was dead. He was shot by the police, about 10:20 a.m. inside a yard on Groine Street.

The police said a team from its Specialised Operations Branch was executing a search warrant for firearm-related offences at 5 3/4 Groine Street in the Jones Town community when the incident occurred.

"During that operation, information is that the police team was confronted by a male citizen at that location with a firearm," the JCF said.

"The police responded and that man was shot and injured. He was taken to the Kingston Public Hospital for treatment, where he was pronounced dead," the police said.

But residents strongly dispute the circumstances surrounding the fatal encounter. Nicola Walters, a relative of the deceased, insisted Anderson was drunk and unarmed.

"Intoxicated drunken man the police dem kill," she alleged. "Go test him breath right now. Him drunk from morning til night, and uno go in a the man house go kill a innocent drunken man," she added.

Walters told THE STAR that she does not defend criminality, and that she would not speak publicly if she believed a gunman had been shot.

Residents described Anderson as a familiar figure in the community. They said he struggled with alcohol addiction, but even so he maintained what they characterised as a cooperative relationship with law enforcement.

"Any time the police dem come at the post office and keep any meeting at all, him gather the people dem to hear weh the police dem have to say, whether good or bad, we out there," Walters said.

She added that when incidents occurred in the area, Anderson would willingly accompany officers to the station to give statements. "They know he's not a criminal," she said.

Standing near the entrance to the yard where the shooting occurred, Anderson's granddaughter claimed she saw the encounter unfold. Her account could not be independently verified.

"Me can speak as eyewitness. When dem shoot him first dem say 'one more' and dem go in a the yard go give him it," she claimed. "Then dem come back and say 'two more' and give him it again and pick up all a the spent shell dem," the alleged eyewitness said.

Holding a cup she said belonged to her grandfather, she described him as a daily drinker who had left home earlier that morning.

"The man just come outta him bed go buy Cash Pot. A rum him drink every day," she said.

Other residents insisted Anderson did not have a firearm. "Him never have no gun, a lie dem a tell pan him. A swear pan me two pickney dem life!" one woman said.

- A.L.