Tourist suspected of committing suicide at police station
Published:Wednesday | June 19, 2024 | 12:11 AMAdrian Frater/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
The apparent suicide of a British national in a bathroom at the Negril Police Station in Westmoreland early Tuesday morning has raised questions about whether there was a serious breach of protocol.
Attempts to obtain details on the circumstances from the police through official channels have proven challenging.
However, based on information from reliable sources familiar with what happened, the visitor, who was identified as Justine Templeman, was on vacation in Jamaica.
Early Tuesday morning, she reportedly began acting strangely at the hotel and had to be restrained several times to prevent her from jumping to her death.
The police were then called in to help restrain Templeman. After they also found it challenging to restrain her, they reportedly decided to take her to the station.
“My understanding is that when she was taken to the police [station], she calmed down somewhat and was no longer behaving in an erratic manner,” the source told The Gleaner. “After a while, she asked to use the bathroom and was allowed to.”
It is understood that Templeman entered the bathroom and closed the door.
FOUND ON THE FLOOR
When she failed to re-emerge after several minutes, an officer reportedly went to check on her and found her sprawled out on the floor with blood coming from her head.
There were reportedly blood marks on a section of the wall, giving the impression that she had been banging her head against it.
“An alarm was raised and a medical team [was] called in to examine her,” the source said. “However, she was later pronounced dead.”
A western Jamaica-based security expert told The Gleaner that based on the state that Templeman was in, she should not have been allowed to go into the bathroom unsupervised.
“There are protocols on how to handle such situations, and based on what I am hearing, the protocols were not followed,” the security expert said.
“Once a person comes into the custody of the police, their safety should be guaranteed. I don’t like what happened, as a tourist committing suicide in police custody speaks to a major breach, which could have serious repercussions for Jamaica and the way we operate,” the expert stated.