A police officer in Jamaica who moonlighted as a robber has been shot and killed in the island’s Westmoreland parish.
The Jamaica Gleaner reports that a masked Kemar Beckford, an officer with the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) stationed at Bethel Town in Westmoreland, walked into a bar in Hopewell in the neighbouring parish of Hanover last weekend and began robbing patrons whilst brandishing a handgun. When an off-duty Hanover police officer confronted Beckford, a shoot-out ensued in which Beckford was killed.
In the incident’s aftermath, several Hanover residents have identified Beckford as the perpetrator of several recent armed robberies in the parish. One – another off-duty police officer – was robbed in his car at gunpoint by a man he now believes to be Beckford while dropping off a passenger.
The rogue officer has since been linked with a number of other crimes.
The officer who challenged Beckford and a female patron of the bar received gunshot wounds during the shoot-out but neither sustained life-threatening injuries.
