Community, colleagues mourn after conductor fatally stabbed on bus
Published:Tuesday | March 11, 2025 | 12:10 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
The Kingston Central Police Division yesterday recorded its second murder for the year after an argument between a conductor and a bus driver, allegedly over passengers, turned deadly aboard a public passenger bus in downtown Kingston.
Dead is 36-year-old conductor, Godfrid Kemar Myrie, otherwise known as ‘Paw’, of a Temple Hall, St Andrew address.
The driver, who is said to have inflicted the fatal stab wounds, operates another public passenger bus and up to late yesterday was still being sought by police.
The death of the conductor has caused shock waves among colleagues and the Myrie’s home community.
“The entire community is in mourning. Paw don’t deserve this. Him always joking around and don’t take nothing serious,” a resident told The Gleaner.
“The ‘ductor (Myrie) never did a tek it serious, but the driver did serious ... . A passenger dem a hunt, a dat cause it and argument turned physical,” a conductor at the scene told The Gleaner.
“Is a long knife the man use. You know dem knife deh wey use cut up vegetable? One a dat him use stab the man. Him love draw him knife but me never know him would do that,” another conductor told The Gleaner.
Members of the general public who saw the commotion told The Gleaner that the scene was graphic.
“We see people a try jump through the window. Dem rush him go [Kingston] Public [Hospital] but him couldn’t mek it. A pure blood ... ,” a vendor said.
A bus driver told The Gleaner that the bus in which the stabbing took place was new on the road and plies the Kingston to Mount Industry route via Constant Spring and Lawrence Tavern.
“The bus just come a road. Yesterday was the first day,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief at the tragedy.
The Gleaner saw the bus seats and floor covered with bloodstains, which told a grim tale of what transpired during the incident, in full view of passengers.
With one murder recorded before yesterday’s incident, the Kingston Central Police Division had recorded an 83 per cent reduction in murders up to March 8.
The division recorded six homicides for the same period last year.
Jamaica has recorded 28 murders for the first eight days of March, according to the latest serious crime statistics published Sunday by the Jamaica Constabulary Force.
This after only 47 murders were reported in February, the lowest monthly total since 2000.
From January 1 to February 28, a total of 117 murders were recorded across the 19 police divisions.
As at March 8, the murder toll stood at 145, or 51 fewer than the corresponding period last year.
This represents a 26 per cent reduction in murders.
According to the statistics, all major crimes are down by 19 per cent.
Police divisions recording 10 or more murders
St Andrew South - 23
St Catherine South - 16
St James - 11
St Catherine North - 11
St Andrew Central - 10
Westmoreland - 10