West Kingston MP pepper-sprayed after police shooting sparks unrest

West Kingston Member of Parliament Desmond McKenzie says a police officer pepper-sprayed him on Tuesday morning as he tried to calm residents angered by a police shooting in the constituency shortly before 7:00 a.m. Officers have not publicly detailed the shooting, and the condition of the person who was shot was not immediately known. The Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) has opened a probe after being notified of the incident.

Speaking to Nationwide News, McKenzie said he went into the community because residents claimed men heading to work had been mistreated and detained. He said he settled the crowd and urged people to let police carry on, then moved toward Spanish Town Road. While he was speaking with officers, a young woman said something to police — he did not know what — and an officer tried to detain her. She ran behind him, he told the officer “No, love,” and was then sprayed, he said. Video of the exchange exists, according to McKenzie. An officer offered to take him to hospital; he declined. He said West Kingston usually has a sound working relationship with police and that he rejected the use of pepper spray when he had done nothing to warrant it.

In St. Catherine, detectives are investigating the fatal stabbing of Frederick Adams, 47, of Hatfield Avenue, Gregory Park, Portmore. Around 12:40 a.m. on July 13, Adams reportedly argued with a man who lived at the same address and was stabbed in the upper body. He ran from the premises, collapsed nearby, and was pronounced dead at Spanish Town Hospital. The St. Catherine CIB is handling the probe.

The Jamaica Constabulary Force is also mourning District Constable Nathaniel McKenzie, 36, of the Clarendon Police Division. His vehicle struck a wall along the main road in New Road on June 9. He was hospitalised and died on Monday from his injuries.

Separately, six men were arrested after police recovered three illegal firearms and 27 rounds of ammunition in St. Andrew South and St. Andrew North between Monday and Tuesday morning. A snap raid on Carwood Avenue in Duhaney Park yielded a Glock P80 with a magazine holding fourteen 9 mm cartridges and one arrest. Later that afternoon on Carpenter Road in Hunts Bay, officers recovered a Glock fitted with thirteen .45-calibre cartridges and detained one man. At 12:03 a.m. Tuesday on Petain Terrace in Constant Spring, a Taurus 9 mm pistol was found in a motor vehicle and four men were arrested.

In the St. Catherine Parish Court, a 23-year-old police constable charged with rape and abduction of a woman he met on TikTok was offered $500,000 bail with strict reporting conditions after King’s Counsel Peter Champagnie applied for bail and argued the encounter was consensual, citing WhatsApp messages exchanged soon afterward. Prosecutors say the 25-year-old complainant met the officer online in October 2025, arranged a Half-Way Tree meeting on November 29, and that he allegedly took her toward her St. Catherine home before diverting to a car wash and having sex without her consent. He was charged after a Director of Public Prosecutions ruling. The matter returns on September 22.

Senior Superintendent Oral Pascoe, commanding officer of the Agricultural Protection Branch, advised farmers to use proper fencing, night lighting, and motion or trail cameras to deter livestock thieves and aid evidence-gathering. He also said farmers selling produce in commercial quantities must use the required receipt book under the Agricultural Produce Act, warning that failure can bring a fine of up to $3 million and at least three years’ imprisonment, while the receipts support traceability and make stolen goods harder to sell.