Police Search for Missing Portmore Constable Amid Weekend Crime Incidents

Police in St. Catherine have opened a search for Constable Kevin Williams of the Waterford Police Station in Portmore after he failed to return from a visit to his girlfriend and missed his scheduled shift.

Williams, who lives in Cumberland, left home for St. John's Road in Spanish Town and did not report for the 6 p.m. duty on Saturday, July 18. His mother filed a missing-person report at the Caymanas Police Station on Sunday, July 19. Calls to his phone since Saturday have gone unanswered.

A colleague described Williams as humble, jovial and dependable, saying he was "always ready for duty." Investigators say checks are under way and the probe continues.

Separately, Guanaboa Vale police are hunting two gunmen who robbed a farmer of about $100,000 near Barry District around 11 p.m. on Friday, July 17. A Toyota Probox forced the man's vehicle off the road at an area known as 11 Miles. The armed men took a box containing the cash and fled in the Probox.

In Portland, 26-year-old K. Affleck and 27-year-old Wendell Jones died in a head-on motorcycle collision on the Folly-to-Troy main road near Troy Hardware sometime after 4 a.m. on Sunday.

The National Strategic Anti-Gang Division seized a 9 mm pistol fitted with a magazine holding six rounds during a Saturday morning operation at an abandoned house on Sher Drive in Tivoli Gardens, Kingston 14. One man was arrested; his identity was withheld pending further inquiries.

Damian Walters, 43, an employee of Guardsman Group of Companies, died Monday at a burn centre in Georgia, United States, from third-degree burns suffered in a May blast at a garage beside the company's South Camp Road headquarters. He was among three men airlifted overseas for treatment; another injured man died shortly after the explosion.

In St. Catherine, licensed firearm holder and contractor Kevin McKie, 47, of St. Andrew, was charged with hunting without a permit and discharging a firearm in a public place after police found 10 birds with apparent gunshot wounds and spent shells near a Toyota truck on Williams Boulevard in Hill Run about 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 16. McKie reportedly came from a nearby house with a shotgun, which was seized for ballistic testing. A court date is being finalised.

Senior Superintendent Damian Manderson, commanding officer for St. Andrew South, told the Jamaica Constabulary Force's A Force for Good podcast that murders in the division have fallen steadily each year since 2021, and that the division last year broke through a target of keeping killings under 100.

In the Bahamas, Deputy Chief Magistrate Shaka Serville fined 18-year-old Jamaican Melissa Ko $500 or three months' imprisonment after she pleaded guilty to causing harm by striking her ex-boyfriend, Kino Raleigh, in the head with a hammer during a July 8 fight. Ko claimed self-defence, saying Raleigh stabbed and struck her; the magistrate noted extreme provocation and that Raleigh is also before the court. After paying the fine or serving the term, she is to be handed to immigration authorities.

Councillor Dr. Kurt Wall of Old Harbour South said six Malaysian nationals found in Old Harbour on Friday were being processed at the Old Harbour Bay Community Centre, and he hoped agencies would complete arrangements before Monday so classes at the facility can resume.