ONE of three men who engaged the police in a shoot out at Burnt Savannah in Westmoreland is now behind bars and facing a charges of breaches of the Firearms Act.

His identity is being withheld pending further investigations.

The Westmoreland police say about 5:45 pm they were conducting an operation in Burnt Savannah when they approached a house occupied by three men.

The men reportedly ran from the house and opened fire at the cops. The police say they returned the fire and one of the men was captured. He was searched and five 9mm cartridges found.

Police are seeking two men known to them only as ‘Franco’ and Bertie’ who can assist in their investigations.

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Reports are that deejay Ewart Brown, more popularly known as Mad Cobra, was last evening admitted to the Spanish Town hospital suffering from gun shot wounds.

Information, up to press time was sketchy, but one source close to the deejay said he was shot in the upper body, close to the shoulder. “Him get two shot in the shoulder and he’s at Spanish Town (hospital),” the source said.

Cobra is the second artiste in as many days to be shot.

Meanwhile, the condition of singer Oneil Edwards of the group Voicemail, was still listed as critical, as he battles for life at the Kingston Public Hospital.

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NEGRIL Westmoreland — CHAIRMAN of the Westmoreland Parish Council Bertel Moore is lamenting the poor state of the Emergency Services in the resort town of Negril.

According to Moore, who is also the People’s National Party councillor for the area, Negril has been without a functioning ambulance for almost one year.

“Next month will make it one year since Negril is without an ambulance and we have asked the TEF (Tourism Enhancement Fund) to provide us with one, but it is not forthcoming,” Moore told the Observer West yesterday.

He added that up to yesterday the town’s sole fire unit was still out of service.

“Just last week, a fire gutted a house on Nampriel Road which is less than a mile for the fire station. Units from other areas responded to the blaze but it was too late to save the building,” Moore noted.

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Four of the 13 people hoping to sneak onto Florida soil last week previously had been deported from the U.S., according to a sworn statement filed Monday in U.S. District Court.

The passengers, who came from Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, told immigration agents they paid between $2,700 and $8,000 to smugglers named “Yellow” or “Rambo.”

About 7 p.m. last Wednesday, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents got a tip about a smuggling sortie on board a boat named the Mary Carla.

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MIAMI, CMC – US law enforcement officials said citizens from two Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries face deportation after they were apprehended when a boatload of people landed illegally at a beach in Fort Lauderdale on Monday night.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials said that while it is possible that some of the migrants may have evaded arrest, those detained came from Haiti, Jamaica and Sri Lanka.

Without identifying those detained by name, ICE said that four were from Haiti and six from Jamaica.

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SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — THE probe by the Bureau of Special Investigation (BSI) into Sunday night’s deadly shooting of a teen-aged girl who was killed while in a motor car with a detective constable stationed at the Savanna-la-Mar Police station, entered its second day yesterday.

The police have identified the deceased as 17- year-old Shanna Kay Clarke, a student of Dexter Street, Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland.

According to reports, the cop reportedly came under gunfire from a lone gunman while he was in the car with the student along the Great George Street, Savanna-la-Mar.

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The Westmoreland police have come up with a strategy aimed at investigating and arresting the leaders of Westmoreland’s Twelve Street, Hot Roses and Toney Reid gangs by year-end.

“Our intention is to utilize every legitimate means (such as arrests and displacement) to ensure that (by) December 2010, these gangs are dismantled and made inoperable. We are of the view that if this is achieved we will be able to reduce criminal activities involving gang members, build safer communities, dissuade others from becoming gang members and restore citizens’ confidence in the rule of law and order, said the parish’s top cop, Superintendent Dezeita Taylor.

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LAMBS RIVER, Westmoreland — An out-of-order toilet at the Lambs River Heath Clinic in Westmoreland is forcing patients to resort to the back of the building to relieve themselves, even as the authorities there caution against unhygienic practices. “Wash hands often to help prevent diseases…please flush toilet after you use it…bathroom out of use…” the conflicting notices mock the reality that there has been no water at the clinic for quite some time now.

When the Observer West visited the clinic Tuesday, two mothers who took their babies for a check-up had to exit the building and head around the back to urinate, Another escorted her son in the same direction for the same purpose.

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If you have ever traveled from Savanna la mar to Montego Bay, then you would know the Citrus Plant in Montpelier. A proposal for the divestment of lands at Montpelier, St. James and Shettlewood, Hanover owned by the Montpelier Citrus Company Limited (MCCL) has been approved by Cabinet. The MCCL is owned by the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) and has accumulated losses of $358 million over the past five years.

The land at Montpelier will be divested to the Coconut Industry Board for $50 Million and the land at Shettlewood to Ramble Enterprises Limited for $52.46 Million. Both companies made the best offers following public advertisements for sale of the lands.

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GOVERNMENT’S efforts to sell the only two state-owned aircraft to pay off debts owed by the national carrier — Air Jamaica — to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States have not found any takers just yet.

“We have the airplanes on the market for US$17 million apiece. They have been on the market since summer of last year. We’ve been scouting but not finding anyone willing to pay that much for the aircraft,” president of the airline Bruce Nobles told the Observer yesterday.

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