(Jamaica Gleaner) One of the bullets suspected to have come from the M16 rifle used by 39-year-old Damion Hamilton to murder two cops at an upstairs house in Horizon Park on Friday could have killed Kamika Blake* had she been watching television that morning.
Two other cops sustained multiple gunshot wounds in the incident.
During the exchange of gunfire, approximately 5 a.m., the bullet entered Blake’s home through a living room window, damaging it, as well as a curtain, whatnot, and smart TV.
She is hopeful of recovering compensation from the State for the damage but said she was happy to be alive.
“I woke up to a knocking, like someone was knocking down a door nearby. When I look, I see a police vehicle, and then little bit after that mi hear ‘Boom! Boom! Boom!’ Shortly after that, I saw them putting somebody in a van,” said Blake.
When she heard some time later of breaking news, she told her daughter to quickly turn on the television. It was then that Blake realised that there was a crack in the TV and that it wasn’t working.
“My daughter looked at the curtain, and there were holes in it, and when we checked the window, we realised a bullet came through,” she told The Gleaner.
Lawmen had gone to the Queens Avenue home on intelligence that men had been trafficking guns at the premises.
But the 11-man team appeared to be unprepared for the intensity of the assault they would face. Detective Corporal Dane Biggs and Constable Decardo Hylton both succumbed to gunshot wounds in the incident.
It is unclear whether Hamilton had an accomplice, but he apparently kicked out windows at the back of the house and leapt out. It is theorised that he made his escape over a back fence.
But he was tracked later to a home in Cooreville Gardens, St Andrew, where he was shot dead in another confrontation with the police.
Hamilton had gone to the home of one of his mother’s friends, an elderly woman, requesting that she pray for him as he claimed to be experiencing relationship problems with a girlfriend. Following the prayer, he asked if he could stay longer to clear his mind.
But it wasn’t long after that prayer had ended that law enforcers swooped down on the location, less than 12 hours after the Horizon Park killings.
After repeated requests from the police to come downstairs, Hamilton refused, The Gleaner understands. He was later killed inside and a 9mm pistol seized.
Residents of Horizon Park with whom The Gleaner spoke on Saturday said that Hamilton had rented the Queens Avenue house, along with another man, for some time now. Residents said that Hamilton and his associate were described as quiet.
However, according to a source, Hamilton, reportedly a former United States Marine who was deported from Canada, was spotted one day by a passer-by with what appeared to be a rifle. An alarm was raised.
“Fi tell you the truth, is a youth like this. Weh you will see him siddung out deh pon a chair, him nuh talk or nutten. You woulda feel like seh is a Christian man,” the source said.
“Nobody wouldn’t know seh a dem type a man deh. … Just two a dem alone you always see, and dem never used to gwaaan nuh way. Him woulda seh, ‘Yes, Elder,’ and just go through.”
