Jamaica police briefs: UWI shooting, Trelawny cash seizure, St Mary robbery, lockup charges, JUTC case dismissed, relief audit gaps

An off-duty constable shot a woman in the leg near the main entrance of the University of the West Indies on Tuesday after a confrontation between her and a route-taxi driver, law-enforcement accounts state. Around 4:30 p.m. the woman is said to have come at the driver with a knife. The officer, who was not on duty but was nearby, stepped in; when she allegedly disregarded his order and moved on the driver again, he fired, striking her lower limb. She was taken to the University Hospital of the West Indies for care. The Independent Commission of Investigations has been informed and the Jamaica Constabulary Force is probing the episode.

In Trelawny, officers detained a man at Clark’s Town on Tuesday after an early-morning, intelligence-led search of his home reportedly turned up more than twelve million Jamaican dollars in cash, a modest amount of marijuana, and three thousand United States dollars. His identity has not been made public while charges are being prepared. Attorney Donovan Collins said he anticipates investigators will question his client on Wednesday and reminded authorities that custody timelines under the Bail Act must be honoured.

St Mary detectives are examining a predawn raid on a supermarket on Stennett Street, Port Maria, between about 2:00 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. Tuesday. Police say four masked intruders prised away concrete blocks that anchored a metal grille, entered the building, and confronted two women who were upstairs in living quarters. The assailants beat the women about the face, marched them downstairs, forced the shop open, and searched for money before escaping with an amount still being tallied. The injured pair were treated at Port Maria Hospital; their wounds are not regarded as life-threatening. Commanding officer for the division Superintendent Anthony Wallis urged anyone who can help to ring the Portmore Criminal Investigation Branch on 876-333-9530 or 876-994-4222, or Crime Stop on 311, saying, “We are appealing to anyone with information that may assist investigators to contact the Portmore criminal investigation branch at 876-333-9530 or 876-994-4222. Persons may also contact Crime Stop at the 311. We remain committed to pursuing those responsible and ensuring the safety and the security of all residents and the business operators within the parish.”

Separately in St Mary, police have charged nineteen-year-old Akela Richards, a hairdresser of Heywood Hall and Exchange in St Ann, and thirty-year-old Romeo Forbes, a construction worker of Ebony Hall, Highgate, after prohibited articles were spotted being pulled toward the Annotto Bay station cell block on Monday night. Officers recovered the dropped bundle plus a clear plastic bag with six cigarettes. A third person got away; enquiries continue. Superintendent Anthony Wallace warned that slipping contraband into lock-ups is a grave offence.

In St Catherine, Parish Court Judge Courtney Maxwell made a “no order” ruling on Monday and discharged Patrick Malabre on a simple-larceny charge tied to an alleged Jamaica Urban Transit Company fuel-theft ring, after the prosecution conceded it could not tie him to the offence. The case stems from 2025, when a driver was held on Chesterfield Drive, St Andrew, over the removal of about 157.6 litres of petrol worth roughly twenty-eight thousand dollars from a JUTC bus; former Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Branch detectives later named Malabre as an alleged organiser, and he was arrested at his St Catherine premises on 18 April 2025.

Meanwhile, Jamaica’s Auditor General, in a real-time compliance audit tabled Tuesday afternoon, flagged serious weaknesses in how donated hurricane relief roofing supplies were checked in at Jamaica Defence Force sites after last October’s category-five storm. Of 122.5 million dollars in building materials delivered to JDF locations, only 88.6 million dollars—72.2 percent—carried formal army acknowledgement. Another 34 million dollars in roofing stock lacked delivery slips or goods-received notes co-signed by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management or a JDF representative, leaving those drops unverified. Payment evidence was also missing for two large supplier contracts—52.3 million dollars and 56.2 million dollars—while, out of 167.3 million dollars in committed roofing work, just 26.2 million dollars in spending had been corroborated by 31 March 2026, leaving 141.1 million dollars without matched payment proof.