Jamaica crime and traffic briefs: St Mary fatality, Mandeville shooting IDs, Granville protest, Portland taxi-bus crash

Police in St Mary are piecing together an early-morning wreck on the Prospect main road near Reggae Beach that left one motorist dead and a number of other people hurt. The crash, said to have happened around 2:30 on Saturday, involved a grey Toyota Probox and a grey Toyota Vitz. Accounts suggest the Vitz was heading east when the driver, seeing strong lights from oncoming traffic, veered and struck the Probox. Casualties were taken to St Elizabeth Hospital, where 47-year-old Sean Taylor of Great Pond, Ocho Rios—who had been driving the Probox—was certified dead.

In Manchester, officers have named two men who died on Friday night during what was described as a running gunfight with police after a pursuit of more than a kilometre. They are Dante Edward Carter, 18, of Hanbury District, and Dave Raymond, 19, of Manning’s Hill District. Around 8:00 p.m., people at a filling station on Newlin Road on the edge of Mandeville reportedly ducked for cover as gunfire erupted. Witnesses described a white Toyota Axio being pursued by a black SUV; the pursuit carried into Mandeville, where a bystander was grazed. When the exchange ended, two men were removed from the car and two firearms were recovered.

In St James, people from Granville blocked streets to object to the fatal shooting of a youth known so far as TJ on Sunday morning during what was described as a clash with security forces as a police unit was leaving following an operation. Demonstrators called the episode the “Mother’s Day Massacre” and rejected the lawfulness of the killing, chanting “We want justice.” The Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) is examining the matter, which follows an earlier security operation in the community in which three people died, among them four-year-old Bowman.

Separately, Constant Spring police said a targeted raid at about 5:15 a.m. on Thursday, 7 May, at a Border Avenue, Kingston 19, St Andrew, address led to the seizure of a Glock 19 pistol and a magazine with eight rounds. Julian Manning, 29, was arrested and later charged with possession of a prohibited weapon and unauthorised possession of ammunition after a question-and-answer session conducted with his lawyer present; a court date was still being arranged.

On Monday morning near Tom’s Hope in the Rio Grande Valley, Portland, an unlicensed taxi carrying roughly seven schoolchildren reportedly took a bend at speed, braked hard to avoid a government school bus, failed to stop cleanly and slid into the bus. The cab operator and the students were taken to Port Antonio Hospital with minor cuts and bruises and discharged after treatment.

In northern Clarendon, labourer Jerome Stone, alias “France”, 47, of Blackwoods, faces shooting-with-intent, firearms, ammunition and unlawful-wounding counts after an alleged confrontation at about 4:00 a.m. on Saturday in which, police say, he produced a gun and repeatedly struck another man in the face with it before a scuffle broke out and the other man fled. Shots were later reported in the area; Stone was subsequently arrested and charged following a formal interview.

Central Westmoreland MP Dwayne Vaz urged the government to resolve housing problems for people moved from the Petersfield shelter, challenging Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie’s statement that all school-shelter occupants in the parish had been relocated by the stated deadline. Vaz, speaking at a Shrewsbury site where dozens of units were promised, said only a handful of foundations had been poured, without water or sewerage, and described a rushed transfer to teachers’ flats beside a school that lacked power, water and cleaning until residents organised themselves. He also cited rodent infestation and called on the prime minister to intervene so residents could relocate with dignity.