MONTEGO BAY, St James — Jolted by a spate of killings, including two separate double murders on Good Friday in the St James Police Division, Commissioner of Police Dr Carl Williams vowed to launch a new attack on the area, which has the dubious distinction of topping the 19 police divisions in homicides.
“l am shocked and outraged at the senseless killings that have resumed in Montego Bay and the surrounding areas. And I am here today (Saturday) to visit the locations and sit with the police officers to see how well their strategies are working, and to work with them to devise even more efficient and effective strategies so that we can properly curtail murders in this division,” said a visibly troubled Commissioner Williams.
The normally quiet Good Friday, one of the holiest of the Christian holidays, turned out to be a bloody day in southern St James where the police recorded two unrelated double murders.
The deceased in the second double killing have been identified as Rose-Marie Green, 28, and Douglas Tinglin, a 41-year-old taxi operator, both of Blue Hole, Montpelier.
Reports are that about 3:30 pm, the two were heading home when they were pounced upon and shot dead by unidentified assailants in their community. Police did not immediately provide a motive for the homicide.
Earlier that day, 50-year-old vendor, Victor Kerr and 27-year-old Michael Thompson, both of Stone Mill, St James, addresses were gunned down in their community.
Police said Thompson, who was returning from a party about 7:00 am, stopped by Kerr’s roadside stall to purchase an item when he was pounced upon by men who alighted from a motor car. Kerr was shot multiple times by his assailants who then boarded the waiting motor vehicle and sped away.
But the car returned shortly after and this time the shooters turned their guns on Kerr before fleeing the scene. Police theorise that the gunmen returned to kill the vendor, whom they saw as a potential witness.
Another unidentified community member, who was shot and injured during the incident, was taken to hospital in a critical, but stable condition.
The number of people who lost their lives violently in St James climbed to 46 since the start of the year, four less than the number for the corresponding period last year.
Commissioner Williams, his face a mask of concern and anger, walked through the communities where the double killings took place, after a meeting with head of the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB), Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Ealan Powell; head of Area One, ACP Winchroy Budhoo; commandeer of the St James Police Division Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Steve McGregor and other high ranking Jamaica Constabulary Force personnel at the Area One headquarters at Sewell Avenue, Montego Bay.
The top cop lamented the reversal of the gains the police were making up until the spate of murders started last Wednesday, saying: “Up to last week the police were recording fewer murders this year than last year. Then all of a sudden we had these senseless killings, starting about Wednesday and peaking yesterday (Good Friday) with two double murders.
“This is not something that we are going to sit idly by and see happen. St James has to return to once again being a peaceful division,” declared the police commissioner.
He noted that the police were following strong leads in the two double murders and called on residents of the south St James communities to refrain from taking the law into their own hands.
“If you hear anybody saying they are going to defend it, let them know that the police will defend it better than them. It don’t make no sense a man go try a thing and then the police come after them as well,” Williams, who offered condolence to the family of the deceased, told residents of Stone Mill. Read more here : Commish vows new attack on blood-drenched St James Division