Jamaica police shoot woman dead during protest over teen killing

Authorities in Jamaica have launched an investigation after CCTV footage of a woman’s fatal shooting by police sparked outrage across the Caribbean nation.

Footage circulating on social media shows a police officer firing at a vehicle during a protest on Sunday in Granville, a community in the north-western parish of St James.

The bullet struck Latoya Bulgin, 45, who was behind the wheel of the vehicle, according to the Independent Commission of Investigations, or Indecom.

Police officers were conducting crowd control duties at a protest against a previous police shooting, in which 17-year-old Tjey Edwardson was killed on May 12, Indecom said.

In the video, Bulgin’s minivan is seen stationary at the side of the road as several people climb out. Police officers stand nearby.

With one of the side doors still open, the vehicle starts to pull back out into the road. An officer standing a few feet in front of the vehicle pulls a handgun and shoots at the driver, amid screams and cries from people nearby. Some people are seen running.

Police officers then drag Bulgin’s limp body out of the car and onto the ground before putting her in the back of a police pickup truck. The officers do not appear to make any attempt to offer first aid.

Bulgin was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead, according to local reports. She was known affectionately as “Buju,” a mother of two and a businesswoman.

The Jamaica Constabulary Force, or JCF, said in a statement it was “deeply concerned” about the shooting and had suspended the officer involved pending an investigation.

The incident has sparked outrage across Jamaica, with the opposition People’s National Party calling for swift and transparent action and raising concerns about the increasing number of fatal police shootings.

Fitz Jackson, the opposition spokesperson on national security, called for calm and said too many Jamaicans were “almost as fearful of the police as they are of criminals.”

He said: “The Granville community is dealing with an absolute tragedy, compounded by two fatal police shootings in just one week. While interdicting the officer is a necessary first step, we need a transparent, fast, and completely independent investigation by Indecom. The residents of Granville and the wider Jamaica deserve the truth. We cannot keep losing citizens during interactions with the law enforcement officers who are paid to protect them.”

According to Indecom, 130 people have been fatally shot by Jamaican security forces this year.

Jamaicans for Justice, a human rights group that has been campaigning for more body-worn cameras for security officers, said Sunday’s shooting demonstrated the importance of independent footage.

“Without the availability of that CCTV footage, we would not be in the position to even be having this conversation and we would not perhaps have seen the JCF high command responding,” the group’s executive director, Mickel Jackson, told Radio Jamaica News.

She raised concerns about the preservation of evidence, saying, “We’re not seeing where there was the preservation of the crime scene and allowing the independent investigators to arrive at the scene, to see how the body was positioned and so on.”

“And I bring it a step further. When you look at the footage and you see the woman’s body just being hauled in the street and then being thrown in the back of the service vehicle, then it raises questions about the dignity of person and how we treat even those who the officers may in their judgment deem to be dead,” Jackson added.

Indecom said the CCTV footage underscored “the importance of technology and independent visual documentation in modern policing oversight.” It appealed for witnesses to come forward and said: “Indecom wishes to remind the public that while video recordings may capture significant aspects of an incident, investigations require a comprehensive assessment of all available evidence, including official statements and witness accounts.”