Representatives of the US Embassy have stepped in to assist Howard Johnson, a US citizen whose 15 year-old son was shot by a member of the security forces, during a joint military operation in Seaview Gardens on Thursday.

“I made a report to the US Embassy and a representative of the US Embassy visited the hospital, and spoke with the hospital administration. They (the Embassy) are fully involved, they are active, and I appreciate their intervention because the surgery moved up from next week Friday to today,” a grateful Johnson told Loop News.

The teenager, who was vacationing in Jamaica from the US where he resides, was shot in the thigh. Doctors will be performing the surgery this evening.

“From all indications, he was shot while he was running. He had heard shots and he was scared, so he was running home and one member of the JCF shot my unarmed son. The bullet entered from the back of his leg, come through him and shattered his cellphone in the front of his pocket,” he said.

The teenager, whose name is being withheld, is on the honour roll at his school and is an aspiring footballer who lives in Bronx, New York. He said that once his son’s surgery is done, he will be seeking answers from the Jamaica Constabulary Force about the events that transpired the evening that his son was injured.

“I plan to go to Hunt’s Bay to speak to the Superintendent of Police because that is where the reports exist as to what happened that day. No one from the police force has contacted me except INDECOM, but I am yet to hear anything official from the police, the Federation, mi no talk to nobody,” he said.

He plans to seek legal representation.

“I just want some answers,” Johnson said.