TWENTY-EIGHT persons died in homicides last week, the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) reported yesterday.That figure is one lower than during the previous week.
According to the CCN, 17 of the murders are still unsolved, with the gun figuring in 24 of the incidents. Three persons lost their lives to the knife.
Among the unsolved homicides are three that took place in the troubled community of August Town where 19-year-old Jerome Markland, 37-year-old Marlene Brown and Everton Bryan, 25, were killed.
Markland and Brown were shot in a drive-by shooting Wednesday evening; Markland died while undergoing treatment at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) minutes after he was struck, while Brown died two days later.
Bryan, who was shot on Friday, also died at the UHWI.
Inspector Archibald McIntyre of the August Town Police told The Gleaner that no arrest has been made in either case. Up to yesterday, over 200 persons had died in homicides this year.
FIREARMS RECOVERED
The CCN reports that the police had success in recovering 13 firearms, including three in the Tawes Pen area of Spanish Town. Approximately 101 rounds of ammunition were seized.
Georgia Brown, 27, and 33-year-old Orville Francis, both of Gregory Park, St. Catherine were arrested and charged Sunday with illegal possession of ammunition. They were reportedly held during a morning raid by police at a home in Walkers Avenue in the community. Twenty cartridges of the type used in M16 guns were found at the home.
A man who was found nursing gunshot wounds in a river in August Town, was also found with a bag containing six 9mm cartridges. The man, whose identity has not been revealed, was taken to hospital but it has not been disclosed whether he has been charged with illegal possession of ammunition.
Also from the CCN's blotters, the body of a man, said to be about 70 years-old, was discovered in the sea near to the Shell Wharf in Rockfort, St. Andrew. The body was clad in a multi-coloured undershirt and black and white underpants. The body has not been identified.
