Following the recent incident where a licensed firearm holder reportedly challenged armed robbers who tried to rob a public passenger bus along Slipe Road, Kingston, killing two, the family of one of the dead men has been claiming he was innocently killed. The police, however, are singing a different tune.

Family members of Kashka 'Kasha' Clarke, 22, one of two men killed during the alleged robbery attempt on September 24, said he was far from being a criminal, despite what police reports state.

Speaking with The Star, Donovan Robinson, Clarke's stepfather, said he spoke with witnesses after the tragic incident and none of their accounts highlighted Clarke as being involved in the robbery. Instead, he claimed they highlighted that Clarke was murdered in cold blood.

Hit by stray bullet

"When mi go up there, after mi hear seh him dead, a lady who sell in the area tell mi she see everything. A she an some other eyewitnesses mek mi kno wha gwaan, " he said. "Mi get fi understand that Clarke go on the bus pon Slipe Road wid two a him co-workers an siddung up a de front. An afta dat the bus pick up four other men further down." It was these four men, Robinson said witnesses told him, who went to the back of the bus and tried to rob the conductor and some passengers, before the licensed firearm holder challenged them.

Robinson said he was told that Clarke, who was sitting close to the front of the bus, was hit in the back by a bullet from the licensed holder's weapon. He said Clarke then tried to get off the bus but fell, after which the licensed holder went outside and shot him another time.

However, the Denham Town police said they have a different understanding of the matter. They said that investigations so far have revealed that Clarke was in fact travelling in the company of the robbers. Deputy Superintendent of Police Hugh Bish pointed out that both Clarke and Damion 'Omar' Williams, 26, the other alleged robber killed in the incident, left the nearby Jones Town community together, before taking the bus they reportedly attempted to rob. He said that the police are still trying to ascertain if Clarke was employed to the Knutsford Court Hotel, as is being claimed.

The matter is still being investigated.