NO QUICK FIX
Chang urges patience for new firearms law to curb frequency of sadistic murders
Published:Wednesday | September 6, 2023 | 12:11 AMKimone Francis/Senior Staff Reporter
To access this article in full please login or register today
National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang is calling for patience with the 10-month-old Firearms (Prohibition, Restriction and Regulation) Act, following the brutal slaying of a pregnant woman and her family in Spanish Town, St Catherine, on...
National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang is calling for patience with the 10-month-old Firearms (Prohibition, Restriction and Regulation) Act, following the brutal slaying of a pregnant woman and her family in Spanish Town, St Catherine, on Tuesday.
The law prescribes a mandatory minimum 15-year sentence for illegal possession of a firearm.
Chang, who decried the “sadistic” nature of recent killings across the country, acknowledged that the legislation, which came into effect in November last year, has not had any significant impact so far.
While police data reveals a 9.7 per cent year-on-year decline in shootings islandwide, with 711 incidents up to August 26, there have been increases in several key police divisions.
With 34 shootings up to August 26, St Ann has seen a 30.8 per cent jump. Clarendon, with 47 incidents, is seeing a 38 per cent increase. St James (2.7 per cent), Kingston Central (6.7 per cent), and Kingston Western (4.3 per cent) have also seen shootings climb this year.
“We expect behavioural change but, so far, it hasn’t had the impact in that court is not a dramatic process. It’s a legal process that takes a lot of evidence gathering and putting the arguments together. So, it takes a little time to get home to the individual.
“It will get there. I have every confidence in the police and the court system to execute and implement the new law effectively,” the deputy prime minister said while on a tour of the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston in observation of the new paperless passenger declaration system.
Chang said the majority of cases going through the system now are those brought under the old legislation.
He said that, to date, he is not aware of any convictions under the new legislation for simple possession of a firearm.
He said that there have been at least two cases where firearms have been involved where there have been convictions.
“That takes a little time. I think, once the criminal players, especially young men, realise that they’re going to be put away for 15 to 25 years or more, there will be a change in behaviour,” the minister said.
Chang said that there has been a level of violence emerging that is of serious concern to the Government and, in particular, the apparent increase in the number of murders committed by seniors.
His comments come on the heels of Tuesday morning’s murder of 35-year-old Sharon Francis-Wellington, 43-year-old Omar Wellington and their 16-year-old son, Orlando Wellington, a student of Innswood High School.
THREE FOUND DEAD
The three were found dead, lying in pools of blood inside their Waterloo home at approximately 5:30 a.m. At least two of the victims had their hands bound.
Senior Superintendent of Police Stephanie Lindsay, who heads the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Corporate Communications Unit, confirmed that the woman, a supermarket cashier, was pregnant.
“A lot of persons are mourning. We’re just into the back-to-school period and the school has lost a student. We really want to appeal to individuals. We’re of the opinion that there might be persons in the community who are aware of who the perpetrators may be,” Lindsay said.
Chang said the murders have been linked to the continued gang war endemic to Spanish Town.
At the same time, he disclosed that there have been attacks on six women in the last 48 hours, with two of them dying.
The St Andrew North police are probing Monday’s gun attack on three women at a bar along Red Hills Road in St Andrew.
The women, who are all of Red Hills Road addresses, were still hospitalised up to late Tuesday evening.
According to reports from the Constant Spring police, about 4:50 p.m. on Monday, the women were at the establishment located at 49 Red Hills Road, when a gunman approached, brandished a firearm and opened fire, hitting all three before making his escape.
An eyewitness said it was a gruesome, blood-soaked scene.
“There’s a certain sadism, sadistic approach to the murders emerging in Jamaica today, which is of concern to me because, beyond the policing, there is the wanton killing of women, but not just women. We see old people murdering each other,” said Chang.