Portland police hold 28 Haitians as JUTC offers $1 million arson reward

Portland police had 28 Haitian nationals in custody by Monday evening after authorities located groups believed to have entered Jamaica illegally earlier that morning. Officers first detained 17 people—10 men, four women and three children—in the Past Gardens area and took them to the Port Antonio police station for processing by the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency and health officials.

Police intensified searches after five men were spotted on the campus of the College of Agriculture, Science and Education. Five more men were later picked up in the Past Gardens and Norwich communities, and six additional men were found on the CASE campus in the mid-afternoon. It is not known where the group landed, though attention has focused on the beach area between Past Gardens and Norwich. Those detained were expected to remain in police custody overnight while immigration and health checks continued.

The Jamaica Urban Transit Company is offering a $1 million reward for information leading to the identification of a man seen on surveillance footage setting fire to a compressed natural gas bus at Spanish Town, St. Catherine, on May 30. The blaze destroyed a bus with a replacement value of US$200,000. At a press conference in Kingston on Monday, JUTC released footage of a man igniting an item at the rear of the bus before leaving. The company believes he is the same person who set fire to a Golden Dragon CNG bus at the Halfway Tree Transportation Centre in 2024.

Managing Director Owen Ellington said the incident threatened commuter safety and warned that an explosion of gas cylinders in the crowded transport centre could have been catastrophic. Mark Dylan, JUTC manager for franchise protection and inspection, said footage shows a male passenger boarding in downtown Kingston at about 2:43 p.m., paying cash fare and travelling to Spanish Town. After other passengers left the bus, the man remained briefly, ignited an object and disembarked before flames engulfed the vehicle. No passengers were on board at the time of either fire. The commissioner of police has assigned a task force to the investigation. Tips may be submitted to Crime Stop at 311 or the nearest police station.

In the Home Circuit Court, an INDECOM officer told a seven-member jury Monday how he secured the scene of a fatal police shooting on Aadia Drive in Barbican, St. Andrew, on January 12, 2013, where Matthew Lee, Ucliffe Dyer and Mark Allen were killed. Six members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, including Sergeant Simroy Mottz and Corporal Donovan Fullerton, are on trial in relation to the deaths. Fullerton also faces a charge of making a false statement to INDECOM. The trial resumes Tuesday.

Testimony from a ballistics expert in the trial of 25 alleged Clansman gang members was cut short Monday when administrative issues forced an adjournment. The detective sergeant had been set to give findings on a Taurus 9mm handgun linked to a 2018 shooting in Bog Walk, St. Catherine, that left two men dead and another wounded. Justice Dale Palmer said the matter should be resolved so proceedings can continue Tuesday.