Saturday crime digest: Montego Bay arcade killing, Kingston escort crash, Mandeville shootout, Leslie sentence, softer April road toll

St. James police are investigating the fatal shooting of a woman at People’s Arcade, Montego Bay, on Saturday about 6:30 a.m. The victim, not yet identified, had just stepped off a Toyota Voxy she drove when a man shot her; she was reportedly collecting a cart used with a soap stall, and the attacker fled.

On Friday about 2:15 p.m., a Traffic Enforcement Branch constable broke a leg when his service motorcycle crashed during an escort for American streamer IShowSpeed along Spanish Town Road, Kingston. A blue Honda Fit overtook the bike, braked sharply, and the rider slid off the road. He was treated at Kingston Public Hospital and is recovering.

Friday night in Mandeville, police fatally shot two alleged gunmen, seized two guns, and halted a chase along Newly Road and Manchester Road past Willow Gate toward Will Plaza. Around 8:00 p.m., a white Toyota Axio entered a Newly Road Texaco while a dark SUV pursued it, sending pump staff and motorists for cover, and one onlooker was grazed. Locals praised police for preventing an escape.

Manchester Parish Court sentenced taxi operator Kevin Leslie to 37 years for murdering nurse Shade Brown, subtracting three years for time served so he must serve 30 before parole review. Jurors convicted him on 3 February; sentencing was delayed from 26 February for missing paperwork and from 7 May when overcrowding closed the court. Brown was stabbed more than 20 times at their Wales, Newport home on 11 March 2023 with her children present; Leslie reportedly fled immediately. Her mother Donna Walker Ellis said justice had come after sleepless nights of prayer and thanked police and lawyers.

The Island Traffic Authority said April brought 26 deaths in 22 fatal crashes—fatalities down 16% and fatal crashes 15% versus April 2025—while pedestrian deaths fell 27% but private-car driver deaths rose to four. Three motorcyclists died, four fewer than a year earlier; half the dead were vulnerable road users, including five seniors and one child. St. Ann led with five deaths; Manchester and Westmoreland had three each; Hanover, St. Mary, St. Catherine, St. Andrew, Kingston, and St. Thomas logged two; St. James one; Trelawny and St. Elizabeth none. Since January, 93 people died in 82 fatal crashes, down 31% and 32%.

The Prime Minister toured Roselle, St. Thomas, for an NHD ground-breaking with Roselle Properties on about 900 homes. A senior officer said the parish had six murders this year, mainly domestic, described school-route escorts, promoter-led domestic-violence messaging, alliances with churches, JPs, and councils, cited a fatal student incident in Morant Bay, and urged slower driving on the highway.