Recovered guns linked to 163 murders

The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) said it has linked 57 recovered firearms to 163 cases that are being investigated for murder or shootings since the start of the year.

Deputy Commissioner Fitz Bailey, speaking at the JCF's monthly press conference held yesterday at the police commissioner's office in St Andrew, also shared that the police have had 595 hits from crime scenes by weapons dubbed as "wanted firearms". This is more than the 538 compared to the corresponding period last year. There are a further 231 firearms that have been linked to 662 cases.

Police Commissioner Major General Antony Anderson also said that through the use of technology and support from international partners, the JCF has been able to trace the source of several illegal weapons.

"We have software that can tie firearms and their usage to particular places and so on, and they give us a picture that we work with. But also we work with our overseas partners to look at the source of these firearms and who may have sent them to Jamaica. So it is really an end-to-end process that we look at and we have had convictions relatively recently in the US from joint investigations that are done between us and police forces in the US. Obviously we work with the ATF (Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms) in the US and their databases too, to also track these weapons," he said. Additionally, the police say it has recovered 392 firearms in 2022, which represents a seven per cent increase when compared to last year's numbers, and the largest haul of weapons in the first half of a year in the past five years.

Meanwhile, the JCF said that 716 persons have been killed between January 1 to June 26, representing a 1.3 per cent increase when compared to the corresponding period last year. Anderson said that 21 murders and nine shooting incidents were recorded in St Catherine during the first two weeks of June as a result of inter-gang conflicts. He also said that the declaration of a state of public emergency quelled tension, resulting in an 81 per cent reduction in murders and a 56 per cent decrease in shooting related incidents. Anderson also stated that major crimes overall are down by one per cent.

"We had anticipated an even greater decline in murders and shootings, however, this was impacted by the increase gang conflicts in St Catherine during the month and the mother and four children in Clarendon during the month of June," he said.