Granville tense after fatal police shooting as JCF interdicts officer

Tension stayed high in Granville, St. James, on Monday after a resident was fatally shot by police on Sunday, with residents burning debris and blocking roads while firefighters put out several fires. Streets were largely empty, though officers remained in the community as calls for swift action and justice grew louder.

The Jamaica Constabulary Force said the victim, Latoya Bolginno, fought with officers and failed to obey the constable who shot her. The shooting followed an unauthorized protest at Granville Square tied to the police killing of a 17-year-old boy about a week earlier. While dispersing the crowd, police said they saw a blacked-out taxi driven by Bolginno dropping off protesters. Checks showed the vehicle was unlicensed. A constable told her it could be seized after the duty officer approved seizure. Police said she declared, "Me vehicle not seized today. Me rather run this over one of them and kill them all today," then tried to drive off. The constable in front of the taxi fired one round toward the vehicle, which stopped. CCTV footage shows the officer firing into the taxi. Bolginno was removed from the driver's seat, taken away in a police pickup, and pronounced dead at hospital. The high command ordered the immediate interdiction of the policeman, reported the matter to INDECOM and IPROB, and said both bodies have opened full probes.

In other crime news, Tyrone Ellis, 30, also called Kino, of Cassava Piece, St. Ann, was shot and killed about 11:00 p.m. at a bar on Cassava Piece Road when two masked men entered; he died at Kingston Public Hospital. Constant Spring police are investigating. Dancehall producer Country Hype, whose given name is St. Andrew Ubertis, pleaded guilty on March 17 to US smuggling charges after 30 guns were seized in Kingston on March 18, 2025; he addressed critics last week, citing the line about casting the first stone. Valley Thomas, 20, of Lowe River, Trelawny, died Saturday night when his motorcycle collided with a Toyota Probox on Seaford Road in Christiana, Manchester. In Montego Bay, police seized an Intratec 9-mm submachine gun and 11 rounds in Rose Heights on Sunday, May 17, and held four people. Ryan Paul, 20, of Georges Plain, Westmoreland, was charged after a May 10 dispute in which a woman suffered bruising, swelling, and a broken arm. St. Elizabeth police distributed 30 helmets to motorcyclists in Junction on Friday as part of a road-safety push, noting six motorcyclist deaths so far in 2026 after 16 in 2025 and 14 in 2024.