August Town Family Seeks Answers After JDF Soldier Fatally Shoots Man Relatives Say Was Mentally Ill

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Relatives of a man they describe as mentally ill are pressing authorities to move quickly on a probe into his killing during an early morning encounter with soldiers of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) in August Town, St Andrew on Monday.

The man has been named as Ricardo Gayle, 34, who lived in the community.

According to police reports, the fatal encounter unfolded sometime after 3 am at the Zone of Special Operations (ZOSO) checkpoint in August Town, where Gayle and JDF personnel came face-to-face. One of the soldiers opened fire, hitting him. He was taken to the University Hospital of the West Indies, where doctors pronounced him dead.

At the scene, a visibly upset cousin pleaded for accountability while speaking with Observer Online.

“They shouldn’t kill my cousin suh, he wasn’t a gunman,” she said. “He’s not a gunman and a three gunshot dem give him… we need justice, he was a sick man!”

Gayle’s mother, Melissa Bennett, was overcome with grief and at one stage had to be comforted by relatives as she wept openly.

“My son [was] mentally-ill,” Bennett said. “I am just lost for words right now.”

Bennett told reporters her son was hit once in the chest and twice in the back. She and other relatives argued that the shooting was all the more painful because Gayle was a familiar face to members of the security forces stationed locally, often helping them out with cellphone troubles.

“My son was a very brilliant individual… he does not like violence… he was a genius in the technology world, him fix phone for all the police dem,” she said.

(Video: Llewellyn Wynter)