Cops hunt suspects in party assault

Ten days after a teen was beaten at an illegal party, she is still hanging on to life in a coma at the University Hospital of the West Indies. Meanwhile, justice is being sought, with two women in custody and three still at large.

The police are appealing to the other suspects to turn themselves in immediately even as they ramp up operations to prevent further violence at parties breaching Jamaica’s coronavirus laws. Dozens of people have been injured at illicit parties in recent weeks.

Kaylan Dowdie, 17, a past student of Papine High School, is currently on life support after she was beaten by a group of women on November 7 along Barbican Road.

The party was being held without a permit on Boysie Lane.

Superintendent Aaron Fletcher, who heads the St Andrew North Police Division, told The Gleaner that the investigators are seeking Tiffany Clarke, Crisan Lewis, and Timone, also called ‘Rusty’ or ‘Yoland’. They have been urged to turn themselves in to the Grants Pen, Constant Spring, or other police stations.

Mullings ruled out

Fletcher also said that the police have disqualified Ann-Marie Mullings as inconsequential to their investigations after her identity was dragged into the fray by virtue of a collage making the rounds on social media.

“She was spoken to on Friday. She came to the police with her attorney and we had no interest in her, and she left in the presence of her attorney. We have no interest in her. She is not implicated in what transpired,” Fletcher said.

Mullings was in hospital, having given birth hours prior, when the attack occurred.

Senior Superintendent of Police Stephanie Lindsay, head of the police communications arm, said that investigators would not relent in their crackdown on illicit parties and other gatherings.

They will be combing social media and engaging in reconnaisance to catch perpetrators.

“If we can get the information ahead of the event so we can prevent them from happening ... . If we know that they are happening, then we are going to go there and close them down; and if we have to prosecute, we will just have to prosecute some persons,” Lindsday told The Gleaner.

Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia Grange last week called for an end to illegal parties being staged across the country in breach of COVID-19 measures.

This followed the death of Police Constable Kirkland Plummer at an illegal party in Harwood, Clarendon.

Reports are that Plummer was attacked by patrons at approximately 9:40 p.m. after he disarmed a man who had reportedly discharged an illegal firearm.