St. Andrew police warn domestic disputes now outpace gang crime

St. Andrew Central police say domestic and interpersonal violence has become one of their most pressing challenges, even as gang-related killings stay under tighter control. The division’s warning comes after 24-year-old Emani Richards was stabbed to death last Friday in Standpipe, St. Andrew, by a woman with whom he had previously been in a relationship.

Police reports say a verbal dispute turned fatal when the woman stabbed Richards in the chest. He was pronounced dead at hospital. The woman is in custody and is expected to face charges shortly.

Commanding officer for the St. Andrew Central Division, Superintendent Mark Harris, said murder numbers remain manageable, but personal conflicts now demand heavy policing. He told Real News Media that gangs were his main problem last year, while this year many killings are not gang-linked. Gang conflict, he argued, is easier to police because officers know where crews operate and who they fight. Interpersonal cases, by contrast, have surfaced in places such as Jacksonville, Gordon Town Road and Smines Road.

Similar deadly domestic cases have featured in recent months in divisions including St. Ann and Clarendon.

In a separate security message, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security and Peace, Ambassador Allison Stone-Roof, who chairs the National Task Force Against Trafficking in Persons, urged Jamaicans to join the fight against human trafficking. She warned that traffickers lure people with fake overseas job ads, then trap them in scam compounds running romance scams, cryptocurrency fraud and other cyber schemes under debt bondage. Citing International Labour Organization figures, she said forced labour and trafficking generate US$236 billion in illegal profits each year, and called for prayer, vigilance and public voices alongside trained, trauma-informed social workers.

Meanwhile, attorney Priscilla Duhaney, spokesperson for child-rights group Hear the Children’s Cry, cautioned that a public sex-offender registry must not fuel jungle justice. Her comments follow the mob killing last week in Troy, Trelawny, of registered repeat sex offender Delroy Ko, believed to be the prime suspect in the July 21 rape and murder of 10-year-old Shanai Ko. Residents said authorities had been told about alleged sexual assaults in the community. Duhaney said communities need information to protect children, but offenders who have served their time still have privacy rights and a path to reintegration, and stronger monitoring may matter as much as publicity.

The National Security Council, chaired by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, also approved moves to modernise drug laws so new psychoactive substances — including drugs sold as Molly — fall under existing controls. A government statement linked the decision to rising seizures and said criminal groups keep altering designer drugs to dodge the law, requiring faster legal designation to protect public health, especially young people.