Manchester bar killing lifts parish murder count as Negril woman and St. Catherine police shooting probed

A gunman opened fire on patrons at a bar in Top Greenville, near Mandeville, about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, killing one man and wounding another as Manchester’s murder tally climbed to 22 for the year.

Police named the dead man as Aigar Martin, a Greenville resident. He and another patron were taken to hospital, where Martin was pronounced dead on arrival and the second man was admitted. Officers said Martin had been on bail over the March 2017 killing of 40-year-old William Granville in Nashville, Mandeville, who was stabbed near a nightclub. Tuesday’s attack followed Saturday’s double killing of Greenville resident Sadifa Henry and Denika Punol in a taxi on Caledonia Road in Mandeville.

In St. Catherine, the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) is examining the fatal shooting of a man by police during an alleged gun confrontation in Crescent District on Monday. Police said a targeted raid for wanted persons began about 5:00 a.m. Officers checked a parked vehicle that appeared abandoned after hearing a sound from it, and reported that a man inside — described as brown-complexioned, about 5 ft 10 in, in a brown pullover with a plaited hairstyle — allegedly pointed a firearm at them. He was shot, fell while clutching the weapon, and was later pronounced dead at Spanish Town Hospital. Police said a High Point pistol with a magazine holding four rounds was seized.

In Negril, Westmoreland, detectives from the Savanna-la-Mar Police Station are investigating the killing of Shawana Thompson, also known as Brains, found dead in her house on Tooly Plain. She was seen Friday at the Negril Police Station and the Savanna-la-Mar courthouse arranging bail papers for an alleged gang member facing murder charges since last September. About 11:00 p.m. Friday, two men on motorcycles allegedly rode up to the premises and opened fire; Thompson was reportedly shot in the head. Police processed the scene and moved the body to the morgue for a post-mortem.

Also in Westmoreland, the decomposed body of 71-year-old Patrick Miller, also called Frank, a retired auto-parts dealer of Porters Mountain who was said to have early dementia, was found in bushes on Sunday morning. He had been reported missing about 8:00 a.m. on Monday, July 13. Residents at Riverhead discovered the remains and called police. Whithorn officers are awaiting a post-mortem to establish the cause of death.

Separately, a passenger on Jamaica Urban Transit Company route 512 between Mandeville and Kingston suffered breathing trouble Tuesday morning. After a commuter alerted the driver, the bus was diverted toward the nearest hospital and intercepted by the Jamaica Constabulary Force, who helped get the passenger to care. Medical staff pronounced the passenger dead. The JUTC expressed sympathy to the family and loved ones.

Meanwhile, the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation continued removing unauthorised signs and billboards. Chief executive officer Robert Hill said the drive began April 1 after a January–March concession period, and that non-compliant clients at Clock Tower Plaza in Half Way Tree were having unpaid, unregularised signage taken down. He said the corporation was also removing an unapproved billboard at the entrance to the Society for the Blind on Old Hope Road after the advertiser refused earlier instructions to take it down, calling the structure an obstruction on the public thoroughfare.