KINGSTON, Jamaica, Oct 19, CMC – The National Security Council is to meet this week to discuss last week’s fatal police operation that left five people dead including two officers dead, Prime Minister Andrew Holness has said.
Holness, who returned to the island over the weekend, has described the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) officers killed in the line of duty as “truly, truly, truly heroes in our national struggle to eliminate organised criminal violence, illegal guns and gangs from our society”.
Holness, who was briefed by Police Commissioner Dr Kevin Blake regarding the developments in the Five Miles area off the Sligoville main road in St Catherine last week, said “there can be no romanticising of gangs, no glorifying of gunmen and no tolerance for those who shelter, finance, arm and celebrate them.
“We must never comfort ourselves with the illusion that organised terror cannot exist in our communities,” he said, referring to the killings in Sligoville as having “shaken the security force.
“It has not in any way diluted the resolve both of the JCF and the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF),” Holness said, adding that he had returned to the island “’to this very sad briefing.
“We will be having our National Security Council regular monthly meeting next week and at that meeting we will review the situation. But I can tell you Commissioner that the policy direction is that you should intensify the operations that you have planned to target the criminals, the gang leaders, those who you have been pursuing with intelligence.
“Bring them forward, intensify it because what this has shown is a new level of criminal organisation that is a threat to our national security. Whatever resources you need, we will discuss it but you should make a big push now to get as many of these who are just lying in wait to confront and challenge the security of the country.
“We must use this as a watershed and a turning point. It is clear to the incidents that have happened that they are persons with criminal intent, the capability and the wherewithal to unleash terror on the society and we must meet them head on.
“We must meet them head on and maintain our civility and the rule of law. So the word to all gunman, take care of yourselves,” Holness said.
The police said that apart from the two police officers – Corporal Trevoy Shaw, and Constable Devoney Rose – murdered during the October 16 operation, the others killed are Errol Hussey, his son Malique Hussey, and nephew Javoun Cogle , while a 10-year-old girlis nursing a gunshot wound.
Holness said that he is praying for the speedy recovery of the child and the other officer, adding that “their service was courageous”.
Holness said that he was informed by the POlice Commissioner that the policemen “bravely and conscientiously’ tried to rescue a child from an apparent surrender.
“It was a tedious draft the officers were fired upon as they approached to retrieve the child and that’s how they lost their lives.So they are heroes. And that is calculated brutality. That is sheer evil.And it is a stark reminder that we cannot let down our guards, relax our laws.
“We must maintain our resolute posture against organised criminal networks. The emerging accounts of this incident points to a disturbing level of planning and coordination.You reported that there was misdirection, diversionary gunfire from outside.
“There was support and pre-arranged transport. All of this must be fully investigated,” Holness said, adding “we must uncover and dismantle every person, every network, every resource, every facilitator who enables this violence”.
He said that the police account also reveals something even more chilling and that is “the evil of these men that they are willing to use members of their own households as shields to protect themselves.
“This is the kind of evil that we are confronted with in our society. These men had a choice. They could have put down their weapons. They could have surrendered and had their day in court. Instead they chose lethal violence.
But let me be blunt. We must separate these evil men from our society. We must stop making excuses for men who carry illegal guns, terrorise communities and prey upon the vulnerable. They are not protectors. They are not justified by poverty, exclusion or social injustice.
“They are not freedom fighters. They are not Robin Hoods. They are not rebels or misunderstood victims. They are parasites and pestilence upon our society and they are an obstruction to the progress of the society”
Holness said that the society is better off without them, adding “they must be identified, disarmed, arrested, prosecuted and removed from our communities through the full force and uncompromising force of the law. There can be no moral equivalency. “
So far this year, the JCF is reporting that as of October 12 this year, there were 418 murders as compared with 546 for the same period last year.
In 2025, Jamaica recorded 673 murders, a significant decline from the 1,147 murders recorded in 2024, representing a 31-year low for the country.
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