IN JAMAICA: Two Mobile Reserve cops arrested, denied bail as part of a 'Police Death Squad'.....The lawmen, Constable Shannon Allen and Sergeant Mario Taylor were taken into custody yesterday and charged with the February 28 murder of Adolphus Reader in May Pen, Clarendon.

BY TANESHA MUNDLE Observer staff reporter mundlet@jamaicaobserver.com  Thursday, May 22, 2014    

TWO Kingston-based policemen, alleged to be part of a 'police death squad', were yesterday denied bail when they appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court on charges of murder.

The lawmen, Constable Shannon Allen and Sergeant Mario Taylor, who were stationed at Mobile Reserve, were taken into custody yesterday and charged with the February 28 murder of Adolphus Reader in May Pen, Clarendon.

The case was initially reported as a fatal shooting, but investigations carried out by the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) reportedly found that the incident was part of a series of unlawful killings that were being undertaken by the police.

INDECOM's head, Terrence Williams, in outlining the allegations yesterday in court, said the constabulary had reported that police officers went to accost Reader when he allegedly pointed a firearm at them and was shot and killed.

Williams told the court that an eyewitness reported that the policemen went into a room and were engaged in a conversation with Reader before killing him. A Browning pistol was allegedly recovered from Reader, but INDECOM is contending that the firearm was planted on the victim as spent shells that were recovered from another shooting incident in May Pen involving the police matched the pistol that was recovered. In that shooting incident Adif Washington was allegedly shot and killed while he was at the May Pen Hospital by two masked men. Two policemen were later charged with his death following forensic evidence, INDECOM said.

Williams, after outlining the allegations, submitted an affidavit to Senior Magistrate Judith Pusey, which noted that bail was being opposed on the grounds that the officers might interfere with the witnesses if they are granted bail, and that the witnesses were unwilling to cooperate while the policemen were free, and also that the policemen may abscond bail.

In court yesterday, attorney Carolyn Reid-Cameron, who represents both men, said her clients had a constitutional right to be granted bail on the presumption of innocence, and that the primary consideration of the court should be whether or not they would return to court if bail was granted. more