Aidonia slapped with gun charges
January 18, 2008
Popular dancehall artiste, Aidonia will remain behind bars after being slapped with charges of illegal possession of a firearm and shooting with intent by members of the Kingston and St Andrew Major investigation task force yesterday.
Two other suspects are also in custody facing the same charges, pending an identification parade.
According to head of the MIT, assistant commissioner Les Green, Aidonia was charged after the shooting and injury of an 18-year-old man at the intersection of Gore Terrace and Myers Drive on January 5.
"The teenager was walking along the road when two cars drove up and shots were fired. The man was hit and injured. We believe Aidonia was travelling in one of the cars," Green told the Observer.
Aidonia, whose real name is Sheldon Lawrence, was arrested a day after the incident after he turned himself into the Grants Pen police.
The other two men have not yet been charged and yesterday Green refused to brand them as the DJ's cronies.
"I wouldn't call them that. We believe they are associates and friends," Green said.
A day after the incident involving the shooting in which Aidonia is implicated, two gunmen attacked and shot Demar Palmer as he left a premises at 85 Red Hills Road, an impoverished community which lies opposite a popular recording studio. Police sources say Palmer's death was linked to the shooting incident.
"We have received information that Palmer was walking with the teenager when the attack occurred and it is strange that he was killed a day after that incident," a police officer who wished to remain unidentified said.
The following day, another man, who lived at the nearby 100 Lane was killed at 85 Red Hills Road and since then that section of Red Hills Road has been tense with a contingent of police officers creating a buffer zone between both communities.
Aidonia's handlers have, however, refuted any claims that he was involved in the shooting. They claim the artiste was the victim of an extortion plot and claim witnesses will come forward to prove that he was not involved in the shooting of the teenager.
Author: Observer Reporter
Source: Jamaica Observer
