Bar buddies mourn slain cop
Published:Thursday | May 9, 2019 | 12:16 AMCorey Robinson/Staff Reporter
Patrons at a bar near South Camp Road in Kingston were left in mourning yesterday as news surfaced about the death of Constable Toddmar Allen, who was assigned to the Mobile Reserve located nearby.
Allen was among patrons at another bar in Rollington Town in Kingston on Tuesday when he was ambushed by two armed men who opened fire, hitting him several times. He was taken to hospital where doctors pronounced him dead. The incident occurred shortly after midnight Tuesday.
Yesterday, customers at the Arnold Road bar reacted in anger as they scrolled through their phones, looking at pictures of Allen in recent months and pictures of him lying dead on a stretcher, blood running from his nose and other parts of his head.
“Dem man deh a somebody weh mi talk to good, good. Him never leave me out, star. Sometimes mi deh down at my yard and him just sen a man come call mi to tell mi that him up here,” said one patron, noting that Allen was never stingy with buying liquor for his drinking partners.
“Mi can’t believe the man really go around there go give weh him life,” continued the patron as other drinkers gathered around to look at Allen’s death photo on a phone.
The patrons openly questioned whether his death had anything to do with ongoing probes into the recently disbanded Mobile Reserve police outfit and their head, Senior Superintendent Terrence Bent, who was sent on leave last week. Allen worked on the force for 12 years.
Yesterday evening, the Police High Command condemned Allen’s murder, offered condolences to his family, and reassured them that all angles would be explored in their investigation into his death.
“The police will continue working hard to prevent senseless acts of violence like these, and we seek the further support of all law-abiding citizens to reverse the culture of violence in our island,” read a release from the High Command.