BY ALICIA DUNKLEY Observer staff reporter ?dunkleya@jamaicaobserver.com

MAYOR of Kingston Councillor Desmond McKenzie is dismissing suggestions that the attacker of his late bodyguard Special Constable Norman Nunes is mentally challenged. The 29-year-old Nunes was last Friday assaulted while driving along Maxfield Avenue, in the vicinity of the Half-Way-Tree Police Station in St Andrew.

It was first reported that the man, who seemed to be mentally challenged, hit the cop’s car. Nunes in alighting from the car to confront his attacker was severely beaten with a piece of metal pipe which the man had hidden behind him.

McKenzie... "The man was a deportee” 1/1

Nunes died at the Kingston Public Hospital Friday night.

But McKenzie, obviously grieving from the loss, said some facts had been misconstrued.

“It is being alleged the attacker was mentally challenged. No, he knew exactly what he was doing. It speaks to those persons who continue to be deported to this country. The man was a deportee,” McKenzie told supporters gathered yesterday at a Jamaica Labour Party Area Council One meeting in Papine, St Andrew.

Nunes, the mayor added, had alighted to examine the car when he was “attacked from behind”.

McKenzie also lashed local human rights groups for their silence on the incident.

“When you take action against those people a sector of this society condemns you and I don’t hear one of these organisations coming out and speaking about the tragic way this policeman lost his life,” said McKenzie. Nunes was never a violent person, he added.

“We have lost a promising young man. What it means is it can be Nunes today but you or me tomorrow,” McKenzie said.

The policeman’s attacker, who was chased and shot by a cop from the Half-Way-Tree Police Station, remains in hospital under police guard.

The Jamaica Observer