Jamaica murder toll down 22% as sixteen killed in one week

Jamaica recorded 16 murders between July 5 and 11, according to Jamaica Constabulary Force figures released as of July 11. That followed two weeks of single-digit weekly kills. Homicides for the year stood at 291 — 83 fewer than the same period last year, a 22% decline. Major crimes were down 18% overall, with drops in break-ins, robberies, rapes, shootings and woundings.

Detectives cleared 304 murder cases from January 1 to July 4, pushing the clearance rate to 111% from 71% a year earlier, including cold cases dating back nearly two decades. St James led divisions with 38 killings so far this year, followed by St Andrew South (25), Clarendon (22), St Ann (20), and Kingston Eastern and St Andrew North (19 each).

In St Catherine, detectives and St Ann counterparts are probing a Sunday, July 12 home invasion at about 11 p.m. A 51-year-old businessman arriving at his Pleasonton Farm home was confronted by two armed men who forced him inside, bound him and his wife, and allegedly stole $10 million in cash plus debit cards and PINs. An accomplice then drove to St Ann and made unauthorised withdrawals or purchases exceeding $500,000. Linstead police are leading the case.

A body in advanced decomposition was found Monday in bushes at Bamboo, St Ann, believed to be 66-year-old Owen Hamilton, also called OJ Teacher, of Steer Town, reported missing nine days earlier. He was last seen Saturday, July 4, at a grave-digging exercise in Bamboo. A farmer found the remains; a relative said decomposition prevented positive identification pending forensics. Relatives had offered a $500,000 reward.

St Thomas police are investigating the Sunday-night shooting of 47-year-old vendor Anthony Henry, also known as Scabell, of Danvers Pen. About 11:10 p.m., residents heard explosions in Ballground; Henry was found in a pool of blood and later pronounced dead at Princess Margaret Hospital. No motive has been named.

In St Mary, construction worker Anthony Nelson, 34, of Field View died Monday morning after a relative saw flames at about 5 a.m. and called the fire service. The cause is under probe. A community member said Nelson had shown signs of mental distress.

St James police reported two Saturday firearms seizures: an IWI multicalibre rifle with 15 rounds of 5.56 ammunition in an intelligence-led SWAT operation, and a black Stoeger SD9 pistol with a magazine holding three 9mm cartridges found in a brown shopping bag under bushes on an open lot at Railway Lane, Montego Bay, about 1:45 p.m. No arrests were reported.

In Kingston, 27-year-old taxi operator Dennis Miller, also known as Brown Man, was charged Friday, July 10, with two counts of robbery with aggravation and receiving stolen property over knife-point hold-ups of two women on Window Cove Avenue, Arborview, Kingston 17, on July 8 between about 1:30 p.m. and 2:20 p.m. Ellis Road police said he fled with phones, $33,150 and other items; a matching vehicle he was driving was intercepted and the goods recovered. A court date is being set.

Constable Andrew Wilson, charged with the May 17 shooting death of Alfa Toyo Buljin in Granville, St James, appeared in the St James Circuit Court and was granted $1 million bail on terms previously imposed at the parish court. High Court Justice Andrew Pettigrew Collins ordered disclosure of outstanding documents by August 7; case management is set for October 9. Defence is King's Counsel Peter Champagnie and attorney Michael Hemmings. Buljin was reportedly shot while protesting her 17-year-old cousin's death a week earlier in an incident also involving police.

Lover Brigham, 28, a labourer of Gregory Park, Portmore, was sentenced Friday in the St Catherine Circuit Court by Justice Yvonne Brown to 14 years and seven months for assault occasioning grievous bodily harm with intent and three years, two months and 28 days for choking with intent, to run concurrently. The court heard that in September 2022 he beat and choked his girlfriend unconscious, poured alcohol on her and set her alight, leaving her hospitalised.