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Spanish Town under curfew - St Catherine North leads in murders so far this year

Published:Friday | January 19, 2018 | 12:00 AMRasbert Turner/Gleaner Writer
Yesterday, police stand guard at the entrance to Jones Avenue in Spanish Town, St Catherine, during a curfew, which has been imposed in the area.

With 12 murders since the start of the year in the St Catherine North police division, on Thursday night, the Government imposed a curfew in the hope of arresting the situation.

The curfew covers sections of the Twickenham Park Road in the Jones Avenue community.

"Mi glad that di police dem finally decide to come out here to deal wid the situation. Mi live in di area and me tiad a di shooting and killing," one resident told The Gleaner yesterday. "Di crime haffi control, and a di police and soldier get pay fi deal with it."

A business operator said: "We need the police vehicle to be parked along the road again. It gives us a sense of security. We cannot invest here and are becoming targets for criminals. This must be addressed with urgency."

Superintendent Ralsford Hardie, head of the operations portfolio, said that the police would be working around the clock to bring crime under control.

Last year, St Catherine North reported 135 murders. With just 19 days into the new year, the division has, so, far recorded the most murders in the country.