Jamaican police shot and killed a woman during street protests
In Jamaica, during a protest against a previous police shooting, law enforcement officers opened fire and fatally wounded a woman; the incident was captured on surveillance cameras and sparked a strong public outcry. The incident occurred amid mass protests following the death of a teenager, and the country is now once again debating police conduct and the use of force, according to The Guardian.
The incident took place on May 17 in the northwestern district of St. James in the town of Granville, where people took to the streets to protest after 17-year-old Tjay Edwardsson was killed by police gunfire on May 12, which sparked a wave of discontent and street demonstrations.
According to The Guardian, footage from surveillance cameras and social media shows a police officer opening fire on a vehicle while crowd-controlling, and a bullet striking 45-year-old Latoua Bulgin, who was behind the wheel of a minivan. The footage shows the minivan parked on the side of the road, people getting out of it, with police officers nearby; the vehicle then begins to move, and at that moment, the officer standing in front of it draws his weapon and fires without any apparent warning.
Afterward, as seen in the recording, law enforcement officers pull the wounded woman from the vehicle and carry her to a police pickup truck; however, the video does not show any attempts to administer first aid directly at the scene. The woman was taken to the hospital, but doctors could only confirm her death, and local media report that Latoya Bulgin was a mother of two and ran a business.
Jamaica’s Independent Commission of Inquiry stated that the police officers acted within the bounds of “crowd control,” while the country’s police force expressed “deep concern” over the incident and suspended the officer pending the completion of an investigation.
Meanwhile, according to the regulator Indecom, Jamaican law enforcement has shot and killed 130 people since the beginning of the year, further heightening public tension surrounding the actions of law enforcement in the country.
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