André Williams, STAR Writer

The police in Portland were in for a rude awakening on New Year's night when angry patrons who were disgruntled with the lawmen for shutting down an annual stage show in the parish rained bottles on them.

It is reported that the actions of the police personnel in Hope Bay, Portland, at the event dubbed 'Somerset Falls Stage Show', coupled with the fact that two of the main acts, Tommy Lee Sparta and Aidonia, were unable to perform, brought an abrupt end to the annual show after bottles began to rain.

The annual Family Fun Day event featured other acts such as Specialist, Ninja Man, I Wayne, Sizzla and others.

THE STAR gathered that angry patrons threw bottles at the police who went to the stage allegedly to unplug the audio equipment.

The bottle throwing, which damaged thousands of dollars worth of equipment and threatened public safety, lasted for approximately 15 minutes and was halted only at the sound of gunfire, which rang out in a section of the venue.

Hundreds of persons including the police were seen scampering for cover as the bottles came flying heavier than the rainfall, which had earlier threatened the show.

'spend wi money'

A patron told THE STAR, "Di police dem too wicked, a dem cause it, a good fi dem, dem mussi tink Portland people a fool. A spend we spend wi money come in ya!"

A police officer that was in attendance refuted the patron's allegations.

He told THE STAR, "Look what time it is now, minutes after four in the morning - how much more time can di police give ... the organisers are to try their best to have things in a suitable running order."

A female patron told THE STAR she felt bad how things came to an end though stating her claim that the police could have been more lenient.

She said, "Imagine me pay my money fi see Uncle Demon (Tommy Lee Sparta) and dem go lock off di show ... because of dem, nuff a di artiste dem race dem performance ... we nuh get fi go Sting ... Sting come to we in a holiday and we still can't see we artiste, dat nuh right at all."

The Hope Bay police, when contacted, confirmed reports of the melee and told THE STAR that the incident could have been dealt with better.

The senior officer said, "Though statements are still being collected, some members of the police party at the event were injured from the missiles that were being thrown on the stage and though the injuries reported are not considered serious, we will be looking into curtailing future occurrences with incidents of this nature ... "

Efforts to speak with the main promoter of the show proved unsuccessful, as several calls to his phone went unanswered.