Cops concerned after recent spate of murders in Second City
Published:Wednesday | March 1, 2023 | 1:17 AMHopeton Bucknor/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
While Montego Bay, St James, is currently seeing a reduction in murders over the comparative period last year, recent incidents, including three killings since the start of the week, have caused concern for the cops.
The St James police are reporting that within the past three weeks, at least nine persons were murdered within the area covered by the Barnett Street Police Station in Montego Bay, the parish capital.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Clifford Chambers, the commanding officer for Area One, told The Gleaner that the police are concerned about the spike and are putting measures in place to apprehend the perpetrators and stem the violence.
“We have been practising how best we can lock the town centre if a crime is committed, which includes controlling the major thoroughfare,” explained Chambers. “We are also looking at the CCTV [network] to ensure that they are all up and running and to see how best we can use them to mitigate and also to complement police formation.”
Chambers said that although there is CCTV camera coverage on every street within the heart of Montego Bay, the police are nonetheless ensuring that they maintain an adequate presence on the ground.
“We are also trying to saturate the downtown space – Sam Sharpe Square, Barnett Street, St James Street, the town centre. We are looking at Harbour Street and all those areas that we know are highly traversed and provide an avenue through which a person who commits a crime can easily move into a gully or a community, and then become invisible,” said Chambers.
Chambers’ concern comes in the wake of three men being in downtown Montego Bay, sparking fresh fears among persons who do business in this area.
In the first incident, an unidentified male was stabbed multiple times during a dispute with another man along Barnett Street on Sunday. He succumbed to his injuries at the Cornwall Regional Hospital on Tuesday.
In the second incident, 43-year-old security guard, Duane Russell, of Bamboo district, in Hanover, was shot dead shortly after 1:30 p.m. on Monday by a lone gunman.
In the third incident, also on Monday, a man identified as Trevaughn Lawson was fatally hit during a drive-by shooting on Railway Lane shortly after 7:30 p.m.
Despite the uptick in murders within Montego Bay over the past three weeks, the Jamaica Constabulary Force is reporting a reduction in murders across St James.
The JCF statistics have indicated that, since the start of the year, 23 persons have been murdered in St, James, which is 19 murders fewer than the 42 persons murdered over the corresponding period last year.