Jamaica man says listened as cops killed his brother

(Jamaica Observer) Traumatised and now fearful for his life, a trembling Shane Schue said he listened as police officers shot his brother, 25-year-old Kavorn Schue, repeatedly inside his Jarrett Lane, Mountain View Avenue home, then concocted a story they would later tell their superiors and the public.

Shane Schue (left) mourning his brother Kevorn (inset) (Jamaica Observer photo)

Believing at the time that he himself would be shot dead next, the terrified youth said he listened as his younger brother groaned, reeling from the pain of the bullets pumped into his body.

“I don’t know how many shots fired before, but I heard one shot fire first and I got up and looked through a hole in my room,” said Schue, who asserted he did not see the faces of the cops.

“I heard when him (Kavorn) said ‘aaahhhh’ and started to bawl. Same time one of the policeman shot him again and said ‘P#@*y, stop yuh noise’,” recounted a weeping Schue, who was slumped over with grief as he spoke to the Jamaica Observer metres from where his brother’s bloodied bed chalked up chilling reminders of the events that unfolded about 4:00 am yesterday.

Penned up in his room, a small wooden shack next to his brother’s room, Schue said he listened as the cops discussed among themselves the report they would later file.
“All this time I was there listening them and I heard like one of them ‘select’ them gun and them start plan what to do,” he said, weeping.

“And them start plan to say that two men (gunmen) were in the bed and that one jump out and ran through the door,” he said, pointing to a kitchen door, which he claimed the cops flung open before firing shots in the kitchen to corroborate their story.

It was then that he feared most that he would have been next in the line of fire, said Schue.

“Is dem time deh I sent my (other) brother a ‘please call me’ (cellphone text message) and he called me and I told him what happened. ’Cause I couldn’t move. If they knew that I was in there they would have killed me too,” he reasoned, adding that “they were testing the door but I had locked it with the latch.”

That decision to bolt the door, coupled with his resolve to stay silent, saved his life, he now believes. He stayed holed up in one corner of the room for about 15 minutes fighting to hold back the sudden urge to release faeces and urine brought on by his fear and his visualising his brother’s lifeless body in the adjacent room.

Schue said he remained in the spot until the cops’ footsteps were replaced by shouts from neighbours and more gunfire.

When the Sunday Observer called the Constabulary Community Network (CCN) — the police information arm — late yesterday evening regarding the shooting, the official report corroborated the story Schue said he heard the cops planning to give after killing his brother.

According to the CCN, Kavorn Schue was killed in a shoot-out. The report said police from the Mountain View station went to the house as part of a pre-dawn operation. When they arrived at the premises they were fired on by two men. The report said they returned fire and one of the men was shot and killed while the other man escaped. The CCN said the officers recovered a Smith and Wesson revolver and a magazine from the scene.

Anticipating that the official police report would claim the man was killed in a shoot-out, residents blocked several sections of Mountain View Avenue to protest the killing. Some lit debris that had been strewn in the roadway, demanding justice for the youngster who they said was an active member of the community’s police youth club.

Motor vehicles were forced to detour as police vehicles equipped with fire hoses, and a bulldozer cleared away the burning debris under heavy police guard.

“Dem kick off di door and come een come kill mi son!” cried Schue’s father, Errington, who said his child was “not even a smoker, much less involve with gun”.

“He was the president of the police youth club; see him things them here,” the despondent father said as he tossed on his son’s bloodsoaked mattress several certificates, letters, medals, among other documents — evidence of Kavorn’s exemplary performance as a member of the Mountain View Police Youth Club and the National Youth Service (NYS).

“No other shots were fired; is dem (police) alone fired shot. Right now mi feel bad, mi can’t even talk. Dem done kill me son already,” cried the dead boy’s father.

When the Sunday Observer arrived on the scene, the door to Kavorn’s bedroom had been kicked in, and except for his bloodstained, unmade bed, his room seemed undisturbed. The dead youth’s furious relatives and neighbours pointed to this as evidence that there was no shoot-out. Residents also said the cops removed one of the bloody sheets from Kavorn’s bed.

Another young man, who identified himself as one of the dead boy’s brothers, said he would have preferred if the police had come for him instead.