Fatal police shooting of Latoya Bulgin in Granville fuels calls for body cameras and independent probe

A 45-year-old Granville woman died on Sunday after police shot her during a traffic stop in St. James, deepening alarm over fatal force encounters and the absence of body-worn cameras on the scene.

Latoya Bulgin was stopped with another woman in the vehicle. The passenger told CVM News that Bulgin feared she was being targeted, presented a foreign driver's licence, and pleaded for a ticket rather than having the car seized. She said Bulgin left the vehicle, the officer ordered the engine off, and a single shot was fired. Bulgin was placed in a police van and taken to the station before being returned to the vehicle, according to the account.

Residents who asked not to be identified described Bulgin as strong-willed and said the community had grown calmer until violence returned on two consecutive Sundays. Granville Division councillor Michael Troop alleged she had a run-in with the same officer the week before, during a Mother's Day incident in which she picked up a spent shell and refused to hand it over. Troop said the officer returned on Sunday, told her to remember what happened last time, and that she was "marked for death." The Jamaica Constabulary Force has interdicted the officer pending investigation.

INDECOM is probing the death. It said none of the three officers on crowd-control duty at a related protest wore body cameras. The commission noted that independent video is often vital to establish what happened before, during, and after such incidents. Bulgin's death brings fatal police shootings for May 2026 to 15, including a double fatal on May 16.

Opposition spokesman on national security Fitz Jackson called for a transparent, fast, and fully independent INDECOM investigation. "We cannot keep losing citizens during interactions with the law enforcement officers who are paid to protect them," he said. Jamaicans for Justice executive director Mikael Jackson said footage helped place the high command's interdiction decision in context and argued no one should die in a police encounter without an immediate, proportionate threat to life.

The Watchman Church Leaders Alliance and the Jamaica Umbrella Group of Churches condemned the killing and the handling of Bulgin's body after the shooting, which JUGC described as shameful and appearing like desecration. Opposition spokesman on youth and human rights Isaac Buchanan, who represents the family, demanded full transparency and urged National Security Minister Dr. Horace Chang to address the nation on the government's position, citing repeated pledges that hundreds of body cameras had been secured and deployed.