Elderly man shot dead near Halfway Tree bank in bungled $10m hold-up; opposition slams slow Melissa spending as teachers push school safety

An elderly man was shot and killed on Half Way Tree Road in St Andrew on the evening of Friday, May 15, 2026, beside a Scotiabank outlet, after an apparent attempt to steal cash he had on him. Criminal investigators sealed part of the busy corridor, backing up traffic nearby.

Acting Senior Superintendent Mark Harris, who heads the St Andrew Central Police Division, said the pensioner had just finished business at the bank and was heading to Prime Trust Financial Institution, close to an NCB branch and York Pharmacy in the town centre. He was carrying about $10 million when two men—one on a motorcycle and the other on foot—tried to rob him. Harris said the victim struggled and was shot; the cash was left behind, and both suspects sped away on a bike along Half Way Tree Road. Detectives said they were following leads but had made no arrests, and renewed a standing offer of free police escorts for people moving very large sums.

Harris said the assailants singled the man out because they knew he had money, but a strong police presence nearby disrupted the robbery. He stressed that such attacks are uncommon for that commercial strip, noting motorcycles and traffic teams routinely patrol there, and warned that criminals would find it harder next time.

From her Caribbean Palm constituency office in south-west St Andrew, Opposition spokesperson on social protection and social transformation Dr Angela Brownberg attacked the Government’s handling of disaster relief following Hurricane Melissa, citing an Auditor General finding that only about $26 million of roughly $1.4 billion collected had been spent. She told CVM News: “I never would have thought that not even 2% of the funds that had been collected on behalf of the Jamaican people would have remained unspent, not with the level of devastation that is out there.” She argued that sitting MPs were bypassed while defeated former politicians handed out supplies, and she demanded accountability from Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness because the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management sits under his portfolio.

Separate segments focused on school conflict. Jamaica Teachers Association president Mark Malava, speaking after months of campus fights—some fatal—said principals and boards must tighten behaviour policies, linking infractions partly to literacy challenges on the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education and weak home support. Retired Edith Dalton James High principal Ray Howell urged educators to notice distress early and uphold pupils’ dignity. Following recent brawls at St Elizabeth Technical High School, four learners were formally charged on Thursday. The discussion was anchored in a Thursday forum staged by the Kiwanis Club of North St Andrew.

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness, launching the Land Administration Capacity Enhancement project backed by the Korean International Cooperation Agency, said modernising land records was vital because roughly 40% of Jamaica’s land lacks title, blocking loans, inheritance and growth. He pledged faster digital registration, better surveying and a more transparent National Land Agency workflow.

In Eastern Hanover, MP Andrea Perkins said residents who recently protested a collapsed Woodsville bridge were back on the street over cratered routes stretching from Flint River past Trial, Cold Spring and Woodsville toward Pawnside and Cascade, with Merlin High School in Pawnside caught in the grid. She said some Chester Castle roads off the Shuttlewood main road, linking Montego Bay and Savanna-la-Mar, had seen no real work in nearly a decade even before Melissa.

Opposition transport spokesman Mikuel Phillips told Parliament’s sectoral debate that the Jamaica Urban Transit Company could lose about $14.8 billion this financial year and stay afloat only through an $11 billion state subvention, despite more than 250 new buses, and he cited roughly $100 billion in accumulated losses across the previous decade.

Business coverage previewed Thropex 5, Winthrop Wellington’s May 24–30 real-estate conference based at Negril’s Travellers Beach Resort, pitching investor tours of western parishes and panels involving the Airports Authority of Jamaica, NEPA and the Real Estate Board of Jamaica, including talk of height rules for Negril and the planned international airport near Little London. Chef Canardo “Lee” Lee of Reggae Flames demonstrated a Jamaican-seasoned shrimp Alfredo built from skills learned at San Diego High School in St Catherine and family recipes.

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