Fort Road residents call out police for alleged delayed response prior to killing

Fort Road residents say they believe Kemmoy Jeffers would have been alive today had the police responded immediately when they reported he was attacking them.
Thirty-one-year old Jeffers of Fort Road was killed on Friday night following a confrontation with fellow villagers who he allegedly attacked on Fort Road and in their properties.
Eyewitness Ann-Lee Phillip-Lee, says she called the police repeatedly between 10 and 11 p.m. when Jeffers was on his one-hour rampage of erratic behaviour.
“He jumping like you know when animal jumping, he not walking if you understand he was behaving funny. So then he jumped over a fence on the opposite side with the apartments and you hear he smashing in Cheridee door like he want fuh go into de house and then me hear dem a say ‘he in de house’ and me hear the kids and dem start fuh scream…me go back pon  the phone with police and say ‘aryu need fuh come, di boy a go in people place and lick down’,” she recalls.
The witness says a female police officer answered and told her the police had received a number of complaints already and would respond.
Phillip-Lee says that was not the first time she had called the station for the night.
According to the eyewitness, even after promising a response, the police did not go to the scene right away. As a result, she says, residents were forced to take measures to subdue Jeffers who was still throwing stones, smashing things with his hands, head and weapons and throwing himself against doors and walls.
“I called back again and said ‘dem tie he up’…’yuh need fuh send somebody here’ and then she [the police woman] say ‘I dispatched somebody there’, And 45 minutes [later] is then they come there…if dem min respond from the time me call, dem woulda hold he here before he even go down the road,” she says.
Jeffers was known to have a drug problem for several years and it was only recently that his mother, Jackie Carter, reportedly made headway with arrangements to get him into a rehab programme which he was expected to start this week.
A Fort Road man is in police custody assisting with the investigation.
Meanwhile, another resident from the area who did not want to be named, is dismissing suggestion that a serial killer is on the loose in the area and Jeffers was a victim.
The woman says this killing bears no similarity to the killings of two homeless people who were found dead, with their limbs bound, on April 15th and 18th.
Well known advocate on a range of issues, Mary John, in a post on Facebook, is accusing the police of failing the deceased. She’s calling on residents to come together to help others living on the streets and with drug problems like Jeffers as she expresses concern about their well-being and safety.
John says she believes Jeffers “smoked something laced” and that would have explained his “quite abnormal behaviour” or why he “tripped”.