Returning residents not ‘targeted’ though 11 murdered, says Jamaica

Returning residents not ‘targeted’ though 11 murdered, says Jamaica

December 6, 2018 0 By Horace Mills

While refuting claims that criminals in Jamaica are targeting returning residents, Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang today disclosed that 11 such residents have been reported murdered so far this year.

“It is irresponsible to suggest that these killings are a result of targeted attacks on our returning Jamaicans,” he declared, adding: “The police reports indicate, instead, that several of the murders are committed by men who have endeared themselves to the victims.”

The security minister, who described the murders as ‘wicked and un-Jamaican’, said most of them result from domestic disputes.

“These horrific acts of violence against our citizens are reprehensible. It is even more troubling that, in most cases, these killings are a result of domestic disputes between the victims and persons well-known to them.”

Dr Chang, in the meantime, stated that all suspects in the murder of returning residents so far this year have been nabbed.

“We have confirmed the loss of 11 returning residents over the course of this year. It is to the credit of our police officers that all of the accused have been apprehended,” he said.

While noting that the country’s murder rate is down 21 percent when compared to last year, the minister noted that the security forces have increased deployments for the festive season.

Dr Chang, in a statement today (December 6), noted that he was responding to the ‘killings’ of returning residents Karen Cleary-Brown who was murdered and buried in a shallow grave in St Mary, and Barbara Findley whose body purportedly was found in St Elizabeth this week.

The Corporate Communications Unit of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, in a press release today, said the body found in St Elizabeth was ‘hanging by a rope from a tree’. It did not identify the person or state the possible cause of death.


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