'We had several protocols in place' says Maroon Chief following shooting at festival

Chief of the Accompong Maroons in St Elizabeth, Richard Currie, has responded to Thursday night's confrontation at an event, which left one man dead and five others, including two boys, with gunshot injuries. 

In a release posted to his Instagram page, the Maroon chief said Maroons were "disheartened, shocked and left with few words to describe the events which took place at our sacred annual event."  

Giving his own account of the story, he said the incident happened at about 9:00 on Thursday evening, shortly after he made the rounds to remind persons who were not from the area to abide by the curfew and COVID protocols. 

According to Currie, a policeman in plain clothes was involved in an altercation with a member of the community and discharged his weapon. Following the incident, six people were injured, one of whom, a Maroon, later died. However, he said details of the incident, which is now being investigated by the Independent Commission of Investigations, remain unclear.

Currie insists that there were several protocols in place, including trained armed and unarmed security personnel, in addition to an armoured truck for the safekeeping of personal firearms, as persons were prohibited from taking guns into the event.  

He said several attempts were made to get the support of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), and that there was also ongoing dialogue with the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport up to the evening of the sixth of January. 

"...we expected to have alignment on the way forward," he wrote. "We had put in place significant amount of protocols to facilitate our ceremony. We were in dialogue with the ministry and was therefore surprised by the pronouncements made by the JCF regarding the Jan 6 celebrations." 

The Gleaner reported that the police had issued a warning against staging the event, as it was in breach of the Disaster Risk Management Act (DRMA).

However, Currie went ahead with the festival, arguing that the ceremony allowed Maroons to continue their spiritual and traditional rituals just like their ancestors did before.

"This is a religious duty of Maroons to honour our ancestors and to show the way forward for the born and unborn. This is our way of life," he had stated.

The Maroons are celebrating 284 years of the signing of the peace treaty with the British.

In his post today, Currie described as "unfortunate" continued media reportage on the incident, given the ongoing investigations, and called for maroons to bear with the process.

He expressed condolences to the families of the injured and the deceased, and maintained that Accompong Town is a safe and peaceful community.

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