The Commissioner of Police Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin has said the shooting incident which occurred on Thursday in Lodge District, St Ann, and which caused injury to a baby boy, a police corporal and three other persons was a case of mistaken identity.

Earlier reports were that the shooting occurred when police responded to a radio control bulletin that four armed men who allegedly shot and robbed a man in Gayle, St Mary, were heading into Ocho Rios in a grey Nissan station wagon.

Superintendent Patricia Coulbourne-White, the commanding officer for St Ann, who spoke with THE STAR on Thursday night, said the police intercepted the vehicle, noting that its registration plates and make matched what had been circulated on the police radio.

She said the vehicle was signalled to stop but the police team, which learned from the radio alert that the alleged robbers were armed and dangerous, observed suspicious movements, which prompted it to open fire. In the aftermath of the shooting, the baby boy, the police corporal and three others were discovered to be nursing gunshot wounds.

preliminary report

Yesterday, however, the commissioner, in a release, said he had received a preliminary report from the Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI). The release said: "The preliminary report confirms early information that the shooting incident was clearly a case of mistaken identity. The commissioner regrets the shooting incident and the injuries to the four civilians, including a 10-month-old baby and the police officer. The commissioner has ordered the continuation of the counselling process already started by the divisional commander for St Ann with the families of the injured and with the policemen involved in the shooting incident."

The release also said that the police officers did not attempt to cover up but gave an honest account of the tragic incident to investigators.

A final report from the BSI is expected shortly, after which the commissioner will make his final decision on the matter.

The child, whose injury is not considered grave, was transferred to the Bustamante Hospital for Children. The corporal, who was reportedly shot in the head, was taken by helicopter to the Kingston Public Hospital in serious condition. The others were taken to the St Ann's Bay Hospital.