Granville rally ends in fatal police shooting as MP presses commissioner for officer action

Gunfire involving the police during a Sunday afternoon demonstration in Granville, St James, left a woman dead and sharpened community outrage over recent officer-involved killings in the parish.

Residents had turned out to voice concern over the death of a 17-year-old boy, shot about a week earlier in another incident linked to the police.

Reports say the woman, identified only as Buju, became involved in a confrontation with officers who were in the area to monitor the protest. She was shot during the exchange. A sizeable police deployment remained in the community afterwards, but efforts to obtain an official statement from the force proved unsuccessful. Calls to Senior Superintendent Eron Samuels, the divisional head, went unanswered.

Marlene Malahoo Forte, Member of Parliament for St James West Central, the constituency that covers the community, said due process must still be followed. After reviewing what she saw at the location, however, she argued the commissioner must move quickly regarding the officer tied to the shooting. "The commissioner will have to take immediate action in relation to the officer in this matter," Malahoo Forte told reporters at the scene. "I think this one doesn't look so good," she said. "Can't prejudge it, but it doesn't look good."

The killing follows closely on tension aired at Thursday's sitting of the St James Municipal Corporation. Michael Troupe, the People's National Party councillor for the Granville division, traded heated words with Senator Charles Sinclair, a Jamaica Labour Party councillor, after Troupe linked two recent fatal police shootings in Granville to Prime Minister Andrew Holness's stern warning that those who drive violence must conform or they will "meet the judge or their maker."