The Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA) has reaf­firmed its in­de­pen­dence and de­fend­ed its right to speak on the re­cent rise in po­lice-in­volved fa­tal shoot­ings.

This comes in the wake of a sixth po­lice killing since the de­c­la­ra­tion of a na­tion­wide State of Emer­gency on 18th Ju­ly—most re­cent­ly, 42-year-old Mustapha Rawl­ins, who was shot af­ter at­tack­ing an of­fi­cer dur­ing a do­mes­tic vi­o­lence re­sponse in El Do­ra­do. The pre­vi­ous deaths in­clud­ed two al­leged kid­nap­pers and a prison es­capee.

The PCA came un­der crit­i­cism and calls for the res­ig­na­tion of its Di­rec­tor af­ter it is­sued a state­ment on 23rd Ju­ly rais­ing con­cern over the spate of fa­tal po­lice en­coun­ters dur­ing the SoE.

In a new re­lease, the Au­thor­i­ty said its com­ments were made “with­in the con­text of its leg­isla­tive man­date, es­tab­lished un­der the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty Act.”

“Calls for the res­ig­na­tion of the Di­rec­tor in re­sponse to the law­ful ex­e­cu­tion of the PCA’s du­ties are there­fore not­ed but will not de­ter the Au­thor­i­ty from ful­fill­ing its man­date,” it added.

The PCA said it re­mains com­mit­ted to im­par­tial­i­ty, fair­ness, and the pro­tec­tion of all cit­i­zens’ rights.