Moms defend dead sons' reputations after police shooting in Negril

The mothers of the two men who were fatally shot by the police at Red Ground in Negril, Westmoreland, on Monday, are hell bent on proving their innocence. Yesterday they were joined by other family members and close friends who staged a heated protest outside the Negril police station in the parish.

The men, 40-year-old Richard '2-PAK' Mosley, and 20-year-old Shane Grandison, both of Red Ground, were fatally shot by the police while travelling in a motor vehicle in their community about 6:50 p.m. on Monday.

Grandison's mother, Ingrid Grandison, told The Gleaner that her son was a well-behaved young businessman, who has been at the helm of their family businesses ever since his father died.

"My son is a UTech [University of Technology] student. Since his father died in 2020, he helps me to take care of his transportation business," she said.

The elder Grandison said that, up to the final hour of his death, her son, who managed the family tour company, had just finished taking guests on tour in Negril, and was walking from his house when he saw Mosley, who is a close family friend, stopped him, and asked him for a lift in his motor vehicle.

"How can someone of that status shoot at the police? How can someone who just applied for a gun licence, got approved, got the gun already, and is just waiting on the ID to go for the gun, will want to shoot at the police?

"To get a gun licence they have to run a background check on you, so do you think someone like my son, who is one of Negril's promising young men, whose family owns one of Negril's most popular resorts, would thrown his life away by shooting at the police," the mother asked.

She was joined by Joanna Young, Mosley's mother, who also mantained her belief in her son's innocence.

" Them just shoot him and carry him go throw him down a Sav, and talk 'bout him a gunman. But him never have no gun pon him," Young said.

"Him is just a jovial person. The only thing him do, him sell him ganja, him is just a ganja man, so there was no shootout."

Both grieving mothers were among a large group of disgruntled protestors who took part in the demonstration outside the Negril police station.

The police, in a report said they received information that armed men were travelling in a White Toyota Fielder motor car, and went in search of the vehicle.

According to the lawmen, the vehicle was spotted and intercepted in the Red Ground community, and immediately one man alighted from the vehicle, opened fire at them, and ran into nearby bushes.

They say the fire was returned, resulting in Grandison and Mosely being fatally shot, and an illegal firearm recovered from the scene.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Shaun-Jay Mitchell, who serves as the zone commander at the Negril and Little London Police stations, said the two men were shot by the police during a confrontation.

"Well, sometime last evening, two men were shot by the police during a confrontation. A firearm was recovered during that incident, and at this moment relatives are protesting the deaths of at least one of the persons that were involved, and as such they have gathered outside the police station," Mitchell said.

" The Independent Commission of Investigations is currently conducting an independent probe of the circumstances surrounding the incident last night, and we expect that at the end of the day the truth will be revealed, and at least we will be able to provide some solice for the relatives and friends of the deceased persons."

Mitchell also appealed to the protestors not to take the law into their own hands, and urged anyone with information that could assist the police or INDECOM in their investigations, to report to their relevant offices.

Photos show...both men who were fatally shot by the police in Red Ground, Negril, on Monday.

Photo of two mothers of both men, and other relatives and friends protested their innocence outside the Negril police station in Westmoreland, on Tuesday.

Photos by Hopeton Bucknor