Three dead in Mandeville police shootout as JDF probes second Up Park Camp fire

Police have confirmed that a woman was among three people fatally shot during an alleged gun battle with officers on Caledonia Road in Mandeville on Saturday afternoon.

Preliminary accounts place the confrontation around 4:00 p.m. Officers responding to reports of a robbery spree intercepted a getaway vehicle near Horseshoe Curve. A senior police source said occupants of the car opened fire on the police, who returned fire, sparking a prolonged standoff and running gunfight. A woman and two men taken from the vehicle were pronounced dead on arrival at hospital. The clash occurred near where nursing student Danica Pennant and Sadeki Henry were killed last Saturday in a taxi by gunmen posing as passengers.

Elsewhere, a 21-year-old St. Catherine man charged with indecent assault of an eight-year-old girl was on Friday granted $400,000 bail with a surety in the parish court. Bail conditions require him to leave Portmore, avoid contact with witnesses, and report to police three times a week. Attorney-at-law Evon Evans told the court the accused would honour those terms. He returns on November 3. Prosecutors allege that on July 7, while visiting as a family friend, he touched the child inappropriately; the matter was reported to the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse before his arrest.

The Jamaica Defence Force said a fire broke out about 2:30 p.m. Saturday at a barrack building at Up Park Camp in St. Andrew. The JDF fire unit and the Jamaica Fire Brigade contained the blaze by about 3:30 p.m. The cause remains undetermined, and a formal probe will begin once the site is declared safe. It is the second fire at JDF facilities in recent weeks after living quarters were destroyed in June. The Force said it understands public concern, maintains safety protocols across its facilities, and will issue further updates.

St. Catherine Fire Brigade division head Patrick Callum urged residents to take care to prevent bush fires in the current hot, dry weather. Speaking at the St. Catherine Municipal Corporation’s monthly meeting in Spanish Town, he noted the parish led Jamaica in bush and structural fires last year. From June 1 to 30, 2026, the division answered 78 fire calls — 46 in Spanish Town, 18 in Waterford, eight in Linstead and six in Old Harbour — and recorded 139 bush fires. Callum linked risk to land-clearing burns, garbage fires, unattended flames and discarded cigarettes, and said dry conditions make water haulage harder and slow response times.

Opposition social protection spokesman Dr Angela Brown-Burke condemned the government’s practice of fixing plaques bearing beneficiaries’ names on homes under the New Home Social Housing Programme, calling it degrading. “So, today I am condemning this practice of affixing permanent plaques there in the family's name to houses built under the New Home Social Housing Program. Honestly, this dehumanizing act that trades the dignity of poor Jamaicans for political promotion is just really wrong. Every Jamaican deserves a safe roof over their head. Yes, but no Jamaican should have to pay for that with their privacy and dignity,” she said.

Opposition land and works spokesman Luther Cousins pressed the government to deploy modular houses quickly to families still exposed in western Jamaica as hurricane season continues, arguing bureaucratic delays leave people at risk. “This is not a new issue. I have been raising this concern for months. The government is simply not listening, has not listened, and is most uncaring. It is time for action. Modular homes are chattel. They can easily be affixed to any property. We can solve this problem by engaging the justice of the peace in each respective communities to confirm that the residents who are affected are indeed legitimate beneficiaries. Hurricane season is upon us, and the longer we delay, the longer we take to deliver the homes, the leave our people exposed,” Cousins said. The Opposition wants faster, more flexible delivery so affected households are not left unprotected.