Opposition calls for increased police presence in Clarendon following quadruple murder

Olivia Brown/Gleaner Writer

The Opposition is calling for the Government to increase police presence in violence-plagued areas of Clarendon.

The call followed a quadruple murder in Havana Heights in the parish shortly after midnight on Sunday.

READ: Clarendon community jolted as sisters, nephew among four killed last night

The deceased are sisters Tashana and Sherona Whyte, their 19-year-old nephew Luke Newman and Sherona's partner Michael Solomon, 25.

Leader of the Opposition and President of the People's National Party (PNP), Mark Golding and other members of the PNP joined Member of Parliament for South Western Clarendon, Lothan Cousins, on a visit to the family home where the murders occurred.

Golding said Jamaica is in the worst of times, citing the COVID-19 pandemic, the high cost of living and the crime rate.

He called for the police to ramp up their presence in the area.

"We are calling for the Minister of National Security and the Commissioner of Police to ensure that there's adequate security in this community, because this situation is one in a series that has taken place but represents a serious escalation and a change to the nature of the violence here, and it needs to be contained now so that the community can be freed of further trauma and further grief.”

Golding criticised the leadership of Prime Minister Andrew Holness and the Government's handling of the country's crime problem.

Cousins said it is unfortunate that such an act was carried out during a national curfew.

"It is quite unfortunate that incidents of this nature are happening when we are supposed to have increased police presence in the spaces, due to the fact that there's a curfew and the all-island curfew would have started minutes earlier," he said.

"This is really a tragedy and we have to work together as a community and a country to ensure that we can sleep with our windows and doors opened in the realest sense and that it is not a fleeting illusion to be pursued, but never attained."

PNP senator and former minister of national security Peter Bunting said he was jolted by the gruesome attack.

"As a former minister of national security, I've been to many murder scenes, but it is few that have struck me as tragic as the scene we have here today," he said.

According to Bunting, residents lamented that the police were late on the scene despite there being two police stations nearby.

"I am very disappointed that in a time when the whole country is on no-movement when the community and parish have been on curfew from 6:00 p.m. the previous evening, and in a community where there have been flare-ups of violence in the recent past, that there was no regular presence of the security forces that could have helped deter an incident like this," Bunting added.

As at September 4, Clarendon has recorded a total of 63 murders, the same figure for the corresponding period last year.

Shootings, however, have declined by 4%, from 49 to 45.

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