Holness defends security forces, says criminals posing as innocents

ST ELIZABETH, Jamaica –Amid recent cases of fatal shootings by the security forces, Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has warned criminals pretending to be innocent civilians that the security forces have the intelligence to find them and expose their illegal activities, even as he pointed to the Government’s push to reduce murders. His comments came against the backdrop of Tuesday’s fatal shooting of Jowayne Salmon, otherwise called “Mani” by the police, in Balaclava, which sparked protests and roadblocks in Speculation near Luana. Police said Salmon was a known member of the Speculation gang.

"We are at this point where our murder rate has fallen from highs of 1,360 to now we will probably end the year under 600,” he said, evoking applause on Wednesday at a grounding ceremony in Luana. “Let us get the murderers out of our society. Let us get them out now, including those who are wrapped up in our communities, who infiltrate our organisations, who pretend like they are innocent and you don’t know what they are doing outside.

“This is a warning and I am putting it very clearly to all of the criminals, all of the dons, all of them who are pretending that they are not involved; we know. When we act it is not arbitrary and we will continue to invest in the intelligence capabilities of the force so that we can identify those people who are committing murders,” added Holness. He reiterated that the security forces will not relent in pursuing criminals posing in communities as “Robin Hoods”.

“The decline in the murder rate is not by accident and in our society sometimes we praise the perpetrators and we don’t pay enough attention and give sympathies to the victims. I don’t see people demonstrating for the murders of innocent people in Jamaica as how there are demonstrations for persons who the police have implicated or for those who commit the crimes,” he said “To get to that point where there doesn’t need to be any more police killings the murder rate needs to get to zero, because as long as there is one murder there is a murderer and we must find that one murderer,” he added. Earlier this month the Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom) said it is monitoring an increase in multiple-fatality shootings involving members of the security forces, with 67 people killed in 26 such incidents in 2026 up to September 13.