116 Jamaicans murdered in January

Police information shows that an alarming amount of Jamaicans were murdered in January. 281 major crimes were reported which included rape, aggravated assault, murders, shooting and 116 murders took place, this figure is higher than the one recorded for the same period in 2019.

The police records show that major crimes were reduced by 7% at the end of January, but murders went up by 8.4 % compared to the same month last year, as 107 persons were killed.

Thirty-five murders were recorded in the last week of January 2020.

148 murders were recorded in January of 2018, 130 murders were recorded in January 2017 and 79 murders in January of 2016.

For 2020, the parishes of Portland and St Thomas were the only ones that had no record of murder in January but the eight police divisions in Kingston, St Catherine and St Andrew had a total of 70 murders combined.

The security forces seized fewer guns and ammunition last month than they did in the previous three years. It was recorded that 52 guns and 694 rounds of ammunition were taken in by police officers in January while 67 guns were seized during January 2019 and 728 rounds of ammunition were found by the police during the corresponding period in 2019.