INDECOM Probes Fatal Police Shooting of Two Men in Spanish Town

The Independent Commission of Investigations has opened an inquiry into the fatal shooting of two men by police during an operation in Spanish Town, St. Catherine, on Wednesday night, July 8, 2026.

One of the dead has been named as Delroy Xavier Flowers, 22, also called Blacks, of 31 St. John’s Road, Spanish Town. The second man is known so far only by the alias Gunners and is said to be from Waltham Park Road in Kingston.

Police said the operation, launched about 9:20 p.m., followed the robbery and shooting of a pump attendant earlier that day at a service station along Deanery Road in Kingston. Three men were recorded on CCTV in that attack, and officers set out to find the suspects. A police team reported entering a section of 31 St. John’s Road where a group of men was seen. Officers said they identified themselves, the men allegedly opened fire, and police returned fire. When the shooting stopped, two men were found with what appeared to be gunshot wounds. Police reported recovering a 9mm pistol fitted with a magazine holding four rounds at the scene. The injured men were taken to Spanish Town Hospital, where they were pronounced dead. INDECOM is examining the circumstances of the shooting.

Separately, Franklin Brown and Nicholas Thomas, who had been jointly charged with murder over the death of Milton Morris, 53, in Duncans, Trelawny, on January 30, 2025, were acquitted on Wednesday in the Trelawny Parish Court. A parish court judge found there was not enough evidence to commit the matter to the Circuit Court for trial. Attorney Donna von Collins, who represented both men, said a proper investigation might have spared them a murder charge. She said they spent one month in custody before being released on bail. A police witness statement described a man striking Morris on the head with a large metal pan; Morris died in hospital nearly a month later. Collins said the person who struck Morris was not before the court and remains at large, and that there was no evidence her clients acted with that man. She also said the witness statement did not name one of the accused, who she argued should never have been charged.

In St. Andrew, Briana Taylor, 21, a Portmore Community College student, and Michael Anglin, 22, an in-drive operator of Braeton, Portmore, were shot and killed by unknown assailants while in a vehicle on Mol Road in Olympic Gardens at about 3:50 p.m. on Tuesday. A third occupant escaped unhurt. The Major Investigation Division is probing the double murder. Police said a manhunt is under way.

Taylor’s mother, Maureen Haynes Taylor, said she had sent her only daughter to a mall in Portmore for groceries, to pay insurance, and to buy two patties, and did not know she would leave the area. Relatives and then police contacted her; an officer told her to meet them at Tranquility Funeral Home. "When the officer called me and said they have my daughter, I asked, 'My daughter is with you?' He said, 'Yes.' I said, 'I'm coming,'" she recalled. On arrival, she said, "That is when hell broke loose with me." "Why kill my daughter?" she asked. Investigators said the attack was brazen: a shooter allegedly fired through a vehicle window, and an uninjured occupant drove the wounded to a nearby police station before they were taken to hospital, where they were confirmed dead.