Half-Way-Tree cash robbery leaves employee dead as police pledge commercial-zone crackdown

A 68-year-old employee of a financial institution was shot and killed on Half-Way-Tree Road in St. Andrew on Friday afternoon during an attempted robbery, police said.

The victim was named as Lawrence Coisnar, 68, of Feast Civil Gardens in St. Andrew. He died after a struggle with a man who tried to take a green knapsack he was carrying.

Reports indicated that around 1:22 p.m. Coisnar visited a bank to cash a cheque valued at ten million dollars on behalf of his company, with the funds intended for distribution to customers at various locations. As he left the bank, an assailant attacked him and tried to seize the knapsack. During the tussle the attacker opened fire, striking Coisnar in the upper body. The gunman escaped on a waiting motorcycle. Police took Coisnar to Kingston Public Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead. The knapsack was handed over to police at the hospital.

While expressing condolences to the family, friends, and the business community, head of Area Four Police Assistant Commissioner Michael Phipps said the Jamaica Constabulary Force strongly condemns the brazen act of violence. "We will not allow criminals to turn our commercial centers into hunting grounds. My instructions are for sustained high visibility operations across the space which will serve to disrupt, deter, and apprehend the persons who are likely to perpetrate these acts," Phipps said.

He said financial centres would be a main focus as investigators examine forensic evidence and work with the business community and other stakeholders. "We continue to urge the business operators to ensure strong security measures when transporting, especially large amounts of cash. The JCF continues to alert and to advise persons doing larger financial transactions and they transporting large sums of cash to contact with the police who are more than willing to assist free of charge and I repeat a free of charge," the ACP added. He urged calm and vigilance around financial institutions and ATMs, saying operational activity would increase and the JCF would not relent until those responsible are held.

In St. Elizabeth, police on Friday distributed 30 helmets to motorcyclists in Junction as part of a road safety push. Divisional head Superintendent Coleridge Minto said the parish has recorded 12 road fatalities so far this year, compared with 14 in the same period last year. "While we are seeing a decline in road fatalities, motorcyclists continue to lead in the number of fatalities. In 2024, 14 motorcyclists died in crashes. In 2025, 16 motorcyclists died," Minto said, noting that six motorcyclists have died in crashes in the parish so far this year. He said enforcement would continue alongside public education in schools, churches, and community meetings.

Kingston Mayor Andrew Swaby has warned that the newly passed National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority Act 2026 could significantly weaken the Kingston and St. Andrew Municipal Corporation. Addressing a council meeting, he urged councillors to study the law, calling its impact on local government significant and immediate. "It's a piece of legislation that this council must take seriously and understand fully because its implication for local government in Jamaica and if for the corporation in particular are significant and immediate," Swaby said.

He said the KSAMC is a statutory regulator for planning approvals, building rules, public health oversight, and infrastructure, and that the NARA Act changes how central and local authorities relate on regulatory decisions. He cited sections 21 and 22, saying NARA may set timelines for inspections, evaluations, and decisions on authority applications and issue written directives on how applications are processed, including changes to zoning or reliance on prior approvals instead of fresh assessment. He warned that sections 23 and 24 allow NARA to seek a ministerial step-in order if the corporation does not comply. "In plain terms, the minister can make all regulatory decisions for us, override the conditions which have attached it to approval, or grant approvals we have declined it to give, and there is no requirement in legislation that a such order be made public, gazetted, or reported to Parliament," Swaby said. He added that an authority appointed by the prime minister could direct how the corporation exercises planning and building functions, and that the minister—not a court or tribunal—could step in with full legal force while the public might never be told. Swaby said more than 28 civil society and governance groups had objected before passage, and that opposition amendments addressing substantive concerns were largely rejected. He asked councillors to read the law and understand the legal environment they will operate under.