Granville residents and PNP councillor dispute police account of teen TJ Edwards killed on Mother's Day

Neighbours protested in Granville, St. James, Monday as the mother of a 17-year-old who died during a police sweep on Mother's Day spoke publicly while grief-stricken. The Independent Commission of Investigations identified him as TJ Edwards of Granville. INDECOM lists his death among eleven fatal security-force shootings it is investigating and says 126 such incidents have been tallied this year.

The mother withheld both names yet insisted her son had yielded. "My son surrendered to them. You tell a little man to hold up his hand and you still shoot him," she said. She maintained officers searched him and found no gun, contradicting the Jamaica Constabulary Force account.

Information attributed to the JCF places a unit in the community around six on Sunday morning hunting wanted men; as it withdrew, officers reportedly approached the teenager, a clash erupted, and he was shot. Police said they seized a black Taurus G2C pistol with a fixed magazine holding one nine-millimetre round from his body.

Demonstrators claimed he was walking home from a party when officers attacked him without cause.

Tyrone Gorton pressed for charges against the shooter. "I want to see the policeman that did the shooting. We want him to be brought to justice. The youth give up. That policeman should go before the judge and jury," he said.

People's National Party councillor Michael Troop for Granville joined residents whose placards used extreme language about the killing. He challenged the official story, described Edwards as a quiet youth who helped clear debris after Hurricane Melissa flooded the area last October, and said he would arrange counselling for the mother, a political worker whose first son was killed by police. He linked the tension to New Year's Day violence in which four-year-old Roma Bulman died from a bullet allegedly fired from a security-force weapon and two men were also slain, cases before INDECOM.

Troop dismissed INDECOM's role. "Indecom coming to investigate is a bag of nonsense because when Indecom investigate you don't hear anything further," he argued, citing 117 police-related deaths since January versus 317 or 320 he attributed to the prior year.

St. James West Central MP Marlene Malahoo Fort visited Granville to ease tensions. She said she was not present, had heard conflicting accounts, and accepted that pain remained fresh. "Not everyone who has spoken is a direct eyewitness and there is a lot of trauma because it's raw. The good thing is that we have independent investigations by Indecom and the process will have to be gone through," she said. Malahoo Fort noted wider policing complaints, including calls for body-worn cameras, promised ongoing dialogue with the constabulary, and said she wanted a thorough inquiry without letting unrest spread.