Kartel and business partner claim ...Club raid was unfair

(via The Jamaica Star)

Business partner of Vybz Kartel and manager of the Building in New Kingston, Corey Todd, was held in custody for hours during a raid on the venue on Sunday night during the Kartel in Concert, Boxing Day Extravaganza.

Yesterday Todd said that he feels the Building was unjustly raided by the police for the second time in two weeks.

"We had a massive crowd Sunday night, people came out early and were waiting in line from 9:30 p.m. By 1 a.m., the police came and raided the club, they came in with guns drawn in the air and creating chaos," he said.

He further explained; "The police came to me and asked if I'm Corey Todd and took me into custody from 1 a.m to 6:30 a.m."

According to Todd, he was escorted to the New Kingston Police Post while the club was being raided, later moved to the Mobile Reserve and then to the Half-Way Tree Police Station.

He said he contacted his lawyers, Michael Dean and Michael Lorne, who accompanied him to the police station where his United States passport was taken from him. "I contacted the US Embassy and they said they can't do that," he said.

He also said that he asked the police and they couldn't say why he was being held or a reason for raiding the club.

Todd said that he he feels the police's action was an injustice. "They ran our patrons out for no reason. I don't blame the police force even though they didn't have a search warrant," he said.

He further said: "They didn't find anything again, they roughed up a few patrons, a young lady I heard was slapped in the face. A lot of patrons blamed a promoter from another event held that night."

Kartel, who was the main person billed for the event, was on his way to the venue when the raid was conducted. "I wasn't surprised that the police came to lock off the Building so early while all the other clubs in New Kingston were left unscathed, because I had received a call earlier on a private number from someone claiming that I dissed them and only one show can be staged on Boxing night."

According to Todd, they will be putting on a free concert at the Building next Wednesday to make it up to the fans who were present and didn't get the performances they were promised.

In the meantime, Todd says he plans to take legal action against the police for their actions. As for rumors that the police used tear gas during the raid, Todd says he is not sure that occurred but patrons were treated with "excessive force".

However, when THE STAR spoke to Superintendent Derrick 'Cowboy' Knight, head of the Half-Way Tree police, he said that the police went to the location based on information received that there were illegal firearms, drugs, wanted men and other persons of interest at the location. He said the police will continue to follow leads.

"This entertainment location poses a serious security risk as the capacity is between around 1,500-2,000 and Sunday night over 8,000 persons were crammed inside with another 3,000 persons standing outside."

In the meantime, Knight said that two persons were taken in for questioning including Todd, while a female patron was arrested and charged with assaulting the police and calumnious language.

Below is a recording of an interview done on the popular radio show Ragashanti with Vybz Kartel and Corey Todd speaking about what happened on boxing day in The Building.