KINGSTON, Ja­maica, Apr 7, CMC -The In­de­pen­dent Com­mis­sion of In­ves­ti­ga­tions (IN­DE­COM) says 12 peo­ple have been shot and killed by po­lice over the last six days, in­clud­ing 10 record­ed over the long East­er week­end.

“IN­DE­COM views with con­cern the fa­tal shoot­ing num­bers in­volved in the se­cu­ri­ty forces over the past week. Twelve per­sons have been shot and killed for the cur­rent month so far in in­ci­dents in­volv­ing law en­force­ment of­fi­cers,” said IN­DE­COM Com­mis­sion­er Hugh Faulkn­er, who ex­pressed con­cern about the num­ber of fa­tal shoot­ings over the week­end.

He said three in­ci­dents of triple fa­tal shoot­ings over the past 96 hours are be­ing in­ves­ti­gat­ed by IN­DE­COM op­er­a­tional teams, in­clud­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tors and foren­sic per­son­nel.

“These in­ci­dents took place in West­more­land, one in­ci­dent, and St. Cather­ine, two triple fa­tal shoot­ing in­ci­dents,” he added.

IN­DE­COM has said that so far this year, 88 civil­ians have been shot and killed by the se­cu­ri­ty forces, one more than the com­par­a­tive fig­ure last year.

IN­DE­COM was es­tab­lished by an act of Par­lia­ment to un­der­take in­ves­ti­ga­tions con­cern­ing ac­tions by mem­bers of the se­cu­ri­ty forces and oth­er agents of the state that re­sult in death or in­jury to per­sons or the abuse of the rights of per­sons.

The Com­mis­sion is said to be in­ves­ti­gat­ing a case of al­leged as­sault oc­ca­sion­ing ac­tu­al bod­i­ly harm in­volv­ing a mem­ber of the se­cu­ri­ty forces and a se­nior cit­i­zen in Tawes Pen, St. Cather­ine.

Faulkn­er said IN­DE­COM is al­so prob­ing sev­er­al oth­er cas­es of as­sault al­leged­ly com­mit­ted by mem­bers of the se­cu­ri­ty forces.

“IN­DE­COM in­ves­ti­ga­tions are pur­sued to con­clu­sion, notwith­stand­ing any ac­tion tak­en by law en­force­ment. Be­tween Jan­u­ary 1, 2024, and De­cem­ber 31, 2025, of the 57 cas­es of law en­force­ment per­son­nel ruled for charge, nine cas­es have been for as­sault, oc­ca­sion­al­ly bod­i­ly harm,” he said.

On March 26, a mem­ber of the Ja­maica Con­stab­u­lary Force (JCF), Con­sta­ble Al­wyn Hill, was placed be­fore the St. Mary Parish Court in re­la­tion to an off-du­ty shoot­ing in­ci­dent, which re­sult­ed in the death of Ri­car­do Small and the shoot­ing in­jury of a woman. The in­ci­dent oc­curred on June 8, 2025.

Hill was grant­ed bail in the sum of J$750,000 (One Ja­maica dol­lar=US$0.008 cents) with one to three sureties, and re­port­ing con­di­tions. The next court date is sched­uled for De­cem­ber 3, 2026.

CMC/hg/ir/2026