Two women left childless – their sons die fighting for their country

Two women left childless – their sons die fighting for their country

June 13, 2020 0 By Horace Mills

Constable Decardo Hylton (left) and Constable Dane Biggs

Two mothers are left without their only child due to a deadly gun attack on police officers yesterday morning, June 12, in the usually quiet community of Horizon Park in the Spanish Town area of St. Catherine.

Four officers were shot – two fatally.

The deceased are Corporal Dane Biggs who originally is from Resource district in Manchester, and Constable Decardo Hylton from Linstead in St. Catherine.

The slain cops, who were yet to become fathers, worked in the St. Catherine North Police Division. They were members of the Emergency Security Measures (ESM) team based at the National Police College of Jamaica in Spanish Town.

Constable Hylton, who is a past student of Charlemont High School, lived with his mother in the Rosemount area of Linstead, but is originally from Deeside district – also in Linstead.

He travelled miles from his home to participate in the tragic pre-dawn operation, which the Jamaica Constabulary Force said was intelligence-driven. The 11-member police squad seized an M16 rifle.

Meanwhile, Corporal Biggs, who attended Cross Keys High School in Manchester, lived with his wife at Harbour Village in the Old Harbour area of St. Catherine.

“It’s a really difficult time for me and my family,” said a brother of the late corporal.

Meanwhile, a police officer and clergyman, Corporal Cyril Francis, also known as ‘The Preaching Policeman’, described Corporal Biggs as hard-working.

“He was a very calm and disciplined young man; he is very hard-working. He got slip up in his Christian life until he came back on track,” he further told The Beacon.

The clergyman, who is based at Spanish Town Police Station where he is also a peer counsellor, said he baptized the late Corporal Biggs, and later presided over his marriage a few years ago.

He also delivered the tragic news formally to Corporal Bigg’s wife yesterday.

The clergyman was among a number of police officers who converged at Spanish Town Hospital, where the bodies of the slain cops were located, and where two police officers – including Superintendent Leon Clunis – were undergoing treatment.

“That scene at the hospital really moved me,” the clergyman told The Beacon, adding: “Male and female officers; everybody was crying.”

The police said they killed a male suspect a few hours after their colleagues were shot by heavily armed criminals. That killing transpired during a gun-clash at Cooreville Gardens in St. Andrew.

The slain suspect is Damion Hamilton, a deportee who is said to have military background, and who reportedly was the police’s main target at both locations where the operations unfolded.


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