Schools and businesses in a Jamaican city have been closed and taxis and buses stopped running after a violent response to the police shooting of a powerful gang boss.
Gunshots rang out across Spanishtown on Thursday and at least one business was set on fire hours after police shot and killed Othniel “Thickman” Luban, whom they described as the leader of the One Order gang. The leader said.
Four people were arrested for blocking roads and a curfew was immediately imposed, barring people from leaving their homes until late Friday.
“Last night we had a few incidents where roads were blocked. There were attempts to burn down some premises, but we were on the scene quickly to get some control in the area,” said Christopher Phillips, of the area including Spanish Town. Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police said.
“We have things under control, we will not allow the kind of disorder that we have seen in Spanish Town,” he said.
Police and soldiers patrolled the streets of Spanish Town on Thursday, although they remained mostly empty as schools, businesses and government offices were closed as a precaution.
Bus and taxi companies have withdrawn their services from the affected areas.
Police noted that when they pursued Luban, residents of a community staged a protest, blocked roads and damaged several government vehicles.
The pursuit comes after the government ordered a crackdown on gangs following recent mass shootings.
On Tuesday, police declared a public emergency in four areas around Spanish Town after a “significant increase in violent criminal activity in these areas”. State announced.
Footage filmed the same day and shared on social media showed police officers firing warning shots as a mob of locals jeered and threw stones and bottles at them.
According to a report by the United Nations refugee agency, the One Order gang has been based in Spanish Town and has been operating for more than two decades.
Local media have reported this. The group is accused of extortion, murder and drug trafficking.And that his fierce rivalry with the Klansman gang has resulted in hundreds of deaths.
The One Order gang has long been considered an ally of the Jamaica Labor Party, and is believed to be one of the more powerful gangs on an island where some 250 gangs operate.
“St. Catherine’s is a hotbed of criminal activity in Jamaica and requires strong and serious action on the ground to ensure that we have full control and do not lose control,” Phillips said.
Jamaica has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, and many fear the deadly shooting will lead to additional deaths.
According to a recent report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Jamaica has seen an increase in violence over the past 20 years, driven in part by the breakup of older, more established crime gangs.
The situation worsened after the 2010 arrest of Christopher “Dodds” Cooke, the former head of the Shaver Posse, then Jamaica’s most powerful cocaine-trafficking network, which also had branches in the US and Canada, the report said. were
“Since the arrest of Dudus, no other trafficker has been able to gain dominant control over the drug trafficking routes. Rather, there are a large number of small groups that lack a uniform organizational structure that maintain their regional networks. used to traffic drugs,” the report said.
Jamaica has one of the highest rates of police killings in the United States, according to Amnesty International, which said many of these extrajudicial killings are executions.
The Associated Press contributed to the reporting.
