Chronic Law held on US gun charges as police probe killings in St. Andrew and St. Elizabeth

A United States federal court has ordered Jamaican entertainer Chronic Law, whose given name is Hakeem Germaine Campbell, to remain in custody until trial after prosecutors argued he is a danger to the community and a flight risk. The order follows an unsealed criminal complaint filed on July 1 stating he confessed to federal officers that he possessed four firearms—one reported stolen in Florida—when police stopped him in Georgia in November 2025.

A Florida judge on Friday directed his transfer to Georgia, where the November 15 arrest occurred. He faces a maximum of 10 years for possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and a related receiving-stolen-property count. Court papers list a Glock pistol, a Smith & Wesson pistol, an S&W M&P 5.7 pistol, a Premier Arms PF15 .223/5.56 rifle, 92 rounds of ammunition and five magazines recovered from the vehicle. Prosecutors say he admitted in a November interview that the guns were his and were used in music videos, including clips tied to tracks identified as Written a Firing and No Check. FBI Special Agent Andrew Nelson of the Miami-Dade Safe Streets and Violent Gun Task Force is named on the latest arrest. Chronic Law, who holds an O-1B visa issued in May 2025 and due to expire in May 2027, briefly claimed on Instagram that he was being targeted after a July 5 Florida performance. Authorities note he did not seek the special permission required under that visa to possess a firearm; a conviction could end his US status and lead to deportation. His next court date has not been set. He was also held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in January and later released, with no public detail on that detention.

In Temple Hall, St. Andrew, police are investigating a Friday-night triple shooting near a gaming outlet about 10 p.m. Labourer Ronaldo Williams, 29, of Temple Hall, died of upper-body gunshot wounds at Kingston Public Hospital. A man and a 53-year-old woman, wounded in the chest and face, were admitted.

In St. Elizabeth, a man was shot dead about 3 a.m. Saturday after police responding to a break-in at a mini-mart at Ballards Valley Junction exchanged gunfire with four armed men. He was pronounced dead at Black River Hospital; a manhunt continues for the others. Under Area 3 Operation Reset, officers also seized two guns at Oxford and Burnt Savannah and arrested two men suspected in parish break-ins and robberies.

Separately, Demo Pennington, 41, of Gordon Hall, Epsom, St. Mary, was charged Monday with simple larceny and unauthorised access to computer data after allegedly taking a woman’s handbag and withdrawing $7,000 with her bank card following a June 3 dating-app meeting that took them from Kingston toward Portmore, St. Catherine. He faces earlier similar allegations and awaits a court date.

In Portmore, St. Catherine businesswoman Chenise Benjamin was fined $1.5 million or six months’ jail on Friday after pleading guilty to creating public mischief over a false March 4, 2026 report of a Hellshire main-road gunpoint attack. Acting Parish Court Judge John Nelson Gale called the invented crime atrocious.

St. James police, led by Senior Superintendent Ian Samuel, reported 37 murders in the first half of the year—seven more than the 30 recorded in the same period last year—calling the rise marginal and linked largely to interpersonal violence.