Sunday, September 14, 2008
POLICE Commissioner Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin had to apologise to his deputy, Mark Shields, after a major blunder by members of a joint police/military task force, who turned up with a search warrant at Shields' Hacienda Way home in Norbrook, St Andrew last Wednesday.
The security team was looking for the home of embattled dancehall DJ, Vybz Kartel, who lives a few houses down the road from Shields.
Wrong House: A security team looking for the home of embattled dancehall DJ, Vybz Kartel, last week turned up with a search warrant at this house belonging to Deputy Police Commissioner Mark Shields. Police Commissioner Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin has since apologised to Shields for the blunder. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)
Shields was reportedly at home with a female companion and his daughter when the cops and soldiers came calling.
A police source said Shields' female companion opened the door and informed the security forces that they were about to raid the deputy commissioner's house.
"They then told the woman that they were looking for Vybz Kartel's house, and asked her if she knew where the house was," the source told the Sunday Observer.
Shields confirmed the incident, but would not comment on his colleagues' gaffe when contacted yesterday.
"I won't comment on the matter," Shields said.
The source said the officers were sent to Shields' address on the orders of a police superintendent, who allegedly insisted that the address was correct, despite queries by the officers under his command. The source said the superintendent was not particularly fond of the deputy police commissioner, but Shields steered clear of stoking any flames of discord.
"I don't have any proof of that," Shields told the Sunday Observer.
The cops and Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) soldiers eventually left without searching Shields' home, and went to the end of the cul-de-sac at Hacienda Way, where they searched the DJ's house and arrested several persons.
Yesterday, head of the joint task force, Assistant Commissioner Owen Ellington refused to comment on the blunder made by the charges under his command.
"I don't know about that," Ellington said.
Vybz Kartel, whose name is Adijah Palmer, was released last Friday evening after being questioned by detectives based at Operation Kingfish, in relation to the murder of Christopher 'Nunu Puss' Miller, whose bullet-riddled body was found dumped near a canefield in St Catherine last week.
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