As he lived, so he died, clutching the gun, his favourite tool in a long reign of terror.
Marlon “Duppy Film” Perry, one of Jamaica’s most wanted criminals, met his end in a hail of police bullets yesterday at a St Thomas guest house.
Head of the St Thomas police, Superintendent Beau Rigabe said Perry 27, the reputed leader of the ‘Duppy Flames’ gang and two other men were at the Alshamar Guest House in Port Morant, St Thomas, when Perry engaged cops in a shoot out around 10:40 am and was killed.
The two men, whose identities are being withheld, were taken into custody and an AK-47 rifle and two pistols were recovered from the scene.
Perry was wanted in connection with the 2015 murders of Corporal Kenneth Davis, who was assigned to the Protective Services Division, and Constable Craig Palmer, who was assigned to the Kingston Western Division, as well as several other crimes.
Last year, during one of several police-military operations to nab him in Harbour View, St Andrew, one of his cronies was killed and two illegal guns, including an Uzi sub-machine gun, were seized.
But Perry and two other gang members pulled off a spectacular escape, eluding some 100 members of the constabulary force and 90 members of the army, by crawling their way to freedom in a riverbed north of the community.
Perry, named among the 19 most wanted criminals in Jamaica, up to yesterday, had managed to evade several operations launched by the police and military to capture and arrest him.
Police upped the reward money from $1 million to $1.5 million for reliable information to capture him and there was immediate speculation that that had paid off.
As news of his death spread across Jamaica and the Diaspora many took to social media to express their satisfaction.
“I must give credit to the Jamaica Constabulary Force. The job isn’t easy, and even though I believe that the force needs to be restructured, I must give the JCF/JDF credit because lately the armed forces’ work has been producing results,” one user said.
Keep up the good work, and it’s not time to slow down don’t become comfortable with the status quo as there is much work to be done. Let the citizens of Jamaica, the Government, and the armed forces send a strong signal in solidarity that Jamaica will no longer be a breeding ground for criminals,” the user added.
Another wrote: “Good riddance, long overdue. Congrats to both the police and the military. However, the most valuable target is the person or persons who were financing the campaign of ‘Duppy Film’. These are the persons whom the commissioner of police and the army generals must seek to eradicate from the face of Jamaica without bias, and as soon as possible.”
“Well, one down, a lot left. But the good news is it is indeed the infamous and murderous Duppy,” another social media user said.
Other individuals on Jamaica’s most wanted list are still being pursued across the island by joint police/military teams. Citizens are being urged to report all suspicious people and criminal activities by calling Crime Stop at 311, 811, Police 119 emergency number, or the nearest police station.
