Jamaican police fatally shoot woman during protest against earlier police killing

Jamaican authorities have launched an investigation after CCTV footage captured a fatal police shooting of a woman, shocking the Caribbean island nation.

The video, circulating on social media, shows an officer firing into a vehicle during a protest on Sunday in Granville, St James parish, northwestern Jamaica. The bullet struck Latoya Bulgin, 45, who was sitting in the driver's seat.

According to the Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom), police were “conducting crowd control duties” during a protest against an earlier police shooting that killed 17-year-old Tjey Edwardson on May 12.

In the footage, Bulgin’s minivan is stopped by the roadside as several people climb out. Officers stand nearby. With one side door still open, the van begins reversing onto the road.

Seemingly without warning, an officer standing a few feet away draws his handgun and fires at the driver amid screams from bystanders. Several people flee.

Police then drag Bulgin’s motionless body from the vehicle, place it on the ground, and load it into a police pickup truck. They made no apparent attempt to administer first aid to the wounded woman.

Bulgin was taken to hospital and pronounced dead. Local media reported that Bulgin, affectionately known as “Buju,” was a mother of two and a businesswoman.

The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) said in a statement it was “extremely concerned” about the shooting and has suspended the involved officer pending investigation.

The incident has sparked widespread outrage across Jamaica. The opposition People’s National Party called for swift and transparent action, expressing concern over the rising number of fatal police shootings.

Fitz Jackson, the opposition spokesman on national security, urged calm and said too many Jamaicans “almost fear the police as much as they fear criminals.”

“The community of Granville is experiencing an absolute tragedy, compounded by two fatal police shootings within a week. Suspending the officer is a necessary first step, but we need a transparent, swift and fully independent investigation by Indecom. The people of Granville and all Jamaica deserve to know the truth. We cannot continue to lose citizens during interactions with law enforcement officers paid to protect them,” Jackson said.

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

Jamaicans for Justice, a human rights group campaigning for wider use of body-worn cameras by police, said Sunday’s shooting underscored the importance of independent recording.

“Without that CCTV footage, we would not be having this discussion and probably would not have seen the response from the JCF leadership,” the group’s executive director, Mickel Jackson, told Radio Jamaica News.

She expressed concern about evidence preservation. “We are not seeing the crime scene being preserved so that independent investigators can come to the scene, see where the body was placed and how,” she said.

“And I go further. When you look at the footage and see the woman's body dragged across the road and thrown onto a service vehicle, that raises questions about human dignity and how we treat even those whom officers may consider deceased.”

Indecom said the CCTV footage highlighted “the importance of technology and independent visual documentation in modern policing oversight.”

The commission called for witnesses to come forward and stated: “Indecom wishes to remind the public that while video recordings can capture important aspects of an incident, investigations require a comprehensive assessment of all available evidence, including official statements and witness accounts.”