Conductor killed allegedly over $150

A bus conductor was stabbed to death in downtown Kingston yesterday, allegedly over a dispute involving $150.

The deceased has been identified as 36-year-old Kemar Myrie, otherwise called 'Paul', of Top Temple Hall in St Catherine. The incident happened about 12:20 p.m. along Orange Street, near Heywood Street. Reports from the police's Corporate Communications Network indicate that an argument broke out between Myrie and a bus driver. The driver reportedly left the bus he was operating, approached Myrie, and stabbed him in the left side of his neck before escaping on foot. A friend of Myrie rushed him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The gruesome attack left passengers traumatised, with blood splattered inside the bus from the third row of seats. One higgler who was still visibly shaken, said she was grateful her granddaughter had got off the bus just moments before the deadly altercation.

"Mi sit dung right here so and see when the man rush go pon the bus. Mi never know is what, but mi just hear the commotion," she recalled. "My granddaughter was on the bus, but mi call her back to collect something for my daughter. She probably woulda get stab too or traumatised, 'cause see the blood deh through the window and that alone mek me traumatised!"

Another bystander described the panic that erupted as passengers scrambled to escape the terrifying scene.

"The bus full a people! A load dem a load and the two a dem kick off. A through the window nuff a dem climb," the person said.

Long-time associates of Myrie were in disbelief, struggling to understand how a man they knew well could lose his life over such a minor dispute.

"A long time we know Kemar, an all a we work dem route ya. Mi can't believe him dead over $150," the conductor said.