Granville police killing, FLA report dispute and fake-gun sentence dominate Jamaica news

A police shooting in Granville, St. James, has drawn national outrage after 45-year-old Lattoya “Budju” Balogun was killed during a protest over the earlier police killing of her 17-year-old cousin, T.J. Edwards. Viral CCTV footage showed officers removing her from a vehicle and placing her in a police pickup, prompting anger over both the shooting and the handling of her body.

The Jamaica Constabulary Force High Command ordered the officer’s immediate interdiction and referred the matter to Internal Affairs and INDECOM. INDECOM said it has opened an independent probe and appealed for witnesses, noting that the three officers on crowd-control duty were not wearing body cameras. Up to May 21, INDECOM said 132 people had been fatally shot by security forces this year, matching the same period last year. In 2025, Jamaica recorded 311 such fatal shootings, a 65 per cent increase over the year before.

In another case, Dane Watson has been charged with murdering his wife, Melissa Kerris Salmonof, a 35-year-old Jamaican-American accountant from New York. Police say Watson surrendered to St. Mary investigators after Salmonof died from multiple blunt-force injuries to the head. She had travelled to Jamaica for her birthday.

A separate national debate has followed the sentencing of Kingston music producer Yowayne Price, 47, who received 15 years and life imprisonment after eight imitation firearms were found at his Grand Pen Drive home. Price said the items were video props. Critics, including attorney Bert Samuels and Jamaicans for Justice’s Mickel Jackson, say the 2022 Firearms Act is too harsh, while the Government has signalled possible amendments.

At Gordon House, the Opposition walked out after the Government declined to table an Integrity Commission report on alleged corruption at the Firearm Licensing Authority. Floyd Green denied suppression, saying Parliament was awaiting the outcome of court proceedings involving the FLA. Opposition Leader Mark Golding later threatened legal action if the report is not tabled at the next sittings.

Jamaica also secured US$200 million in hurricane coverage through a World Bank catastrophe bond, replacing coverage paid out after Hurricane Melissa. The Meteorological Service is separately warning that a developing El Niño could reduce rainfall and raise temperatures, affecting water, farming and food security.