Black Immigrant Daily News

Five Jamaican men who allegedly fled with another man who is wanted in connection to a deadly shooting in Brooklyn, United States last month, were arrested by police and slapped with drug charges in Florida, USA.

Anelka Green was wanted for allegedly firing several shots inside a restaurant in October, resulting in the death of an innocent bystander.

According to a report from the WJHG newsroom on Tuesday, Green was tracked down to Panama City Beach in Florida, where he was arrested at his condominium with five Jamaican men who were described as his “associates”.

The Jamaicans – Jaheim Cox, 19; Shamar Wedderburn, 22; Renato Campbell, 22; Shamarie Livingston, 22; and Kevar Taylor, 19 – were all charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, possession of MDMA, and possession of paraphernalia.

Reports on social media suggest that the Jamaican men are from an inner-city community in the Corporate Area.

Green is also charged with th offences that have been laid against the Jamaicans, but he was slapped with additional offences, including being a “fugitive from justice for the charges of robbery and homicide”, the media report stated.

Further, he is charged with giving false names to law enforcement officials (LEO).

It is alleged that Green was involved in an argument at a restaurant in Brooklyn in October. Shortly after leaving, he returned and fired several shots into the building.

When the shooting subsided, an innocent bystander was found with a bullet wound, and that unidentified person later succumbed to the injuries that were sustained.

The US Marshal Service contacted the Bay County Sheriff’s deputies in Florida on November 9, for assistance in locating Green, who the former suspected had fled to the Panama City Beach area.

Late last week, law enforcement officials confirmed that Green was staying at a condominium in Panama City Beach, and obtained a search warrant.

After the search of the building was concluded, Green and five others were detained when “several hundred grams of marijuana, MDMA pills and more than US$23,000” were seized, the report said.

It added: “Deputies say (the) men were from Jamaica and came to Panama City Beach with Green after he committed the shooting.”

Interestingly, Green was out on bond in New York relative to a firearm charge from September of this year, when he allegedly fired shots inside the restaurant in Brooklyn.

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Bridgid Annisette-George –

AUDITOR GENERAL Lorelly Pujadas said her office, in conjunction with the Treasury, has helped some 3,872 retirees access their pension, addressing a virtual meeting of Parliament’s Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) on Wednesday. She said up to September, the Auditor General’s Department received the files 3,959 retired public servants, of which they processed 3,872 files and returned those to the Treasury for payment to the pensioners.

She said her department and the Treasury had collaborated in a “big push” to help a “significant number” of pensioners.

“Give a push as much as possible within the financial year ending September 30, 2022 to try and clear out, so the pensioners would be in receipt of what they were duly required to receive.

“So that was a significant push in terms of the deliverables to try and ensure that those officers whose date of retirement was quite some time in the past were in fact in receipt of their pension.”

She said computational issues had delayed some public servants in receiving their due.

“While we still try to maintain a ‘first in-first out’ (policy), there is an analysis which is done where we try to see the files of officers that may be long outstanding or have some outstanding details, or have officers who have not received any pension at all, because we also do get a variety of pensions called revisions…

“Some are amendments, salary increases, incremental adjustments, these sort of things, so they would still have been in receipt of a pension, but they need to be revised because they need to get an amended pension.”

Pujadas said efforts were made to prioritise handling pensions for officers who were near retirement.

Member Lisa Morris-Julian asked the time frame for public servants to receive their pensions.

Ministry of Finance Comptroller of Accounts Catherine Laban said ministries should submit the personal details of public servants a year before their retirement date.

She said, “Unfortunately they are not all abiding.”

PAAC chairman Bridgid Annisette-George asked if some ministries were chronic defaulters in compliance.

Laban said yes. She recalled seeing trends, but said the Services Commission Department may use a disciplinary procedure to get permanent secretaries to act on time, or give them a verbal reminder.

Annisette-George asked about shortfalls which curtailed people getting state pensions.

Laban said the re-alignment of ministries was a big impediment to recording a compilation of public servants employment history.

However, Annisette-George said those had been the initial concerns of ministry re-alignment.

“So in my respectful view, we are not going back there. Those are a given. Given what challenges you have, how do we use our creativity, our will, our love for people, to improve the system?”

Saying some retirees seem privileged in accessing their pensions, Annisette-George asked how all retirees could be made privileged.

The protective services spelt out their pension processing issues.

Supt Clint Arthur of the finance branch of the police service (TTPS) said pension claims move from the Auditor General Department to the Comptroller of Accounts to be processed for the police finance branch to pay retirees. He said he wished to look into questions over whether the police have the capacity to process the claims.

Fire sub officer Seon Raphael queried a report by the auditor general department which lamented receiving 2,000 claims which had not first passed through the relevant internal audit department, with the Fire Service being named prominently in this.

He said, “I’ve been in the pensions department since 2005. Every pension and leave that is done by the Fire Service is audited by the Ministry of National Security audit department and then sent to the Auditor General’s Department.”

Prison officer II Glen De Verteuil lamented delays by the Service Commission Department in the process of pension approval.

Commander Anil Gosine of the Defence Force (TTDF) said the TTDF had produced a simple retirement guide so as to “arm our members with information.”

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Justice Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds.

KESTON “Chucky” Allen has a little under a decade again to serve on his multiple prison sentences for the murder of a teenager, her rape, the sexual assault of her cousin, both of whom he shot, and the kidnapping and robbery of a Curepe taxi driver which took place in 2008.

He was sentenced by Justice Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds on Wednesday.

Allen, who was initially on over a dozen indictments for murdering and raping a 19-year-old girl, sexually assaulting her cousin, kidnapping and robbing them and robbing and false imprisonment of a Curepe taxi driver, pleaded guilty to ten counts of felony murder, false imprisonment, robbery with aggravation, grievous sexual assault, larceny of a car and rape in July.

The judge broke down each sentence she imposed for each charge. They will run concurrently and some of them have already been considered served as he has spent a little over 13 years in prison while for others that time exceeded the sentences he received.

He was also ordered to go to the Barataria police station seven days after he leaves prison in nine years, four months and 13 days to register as a sex offender. Allen will have to report to the station for ten years, six times a year or once every two months. His information will also be published on the public sex offender website by the Commissioner of Police.

Allen, who got married five years ago while in prison, was told by the judge when he leaves prison, it will be with a number of convictions against him.

“Once you are released and discharged, steer clear of the criminal justice system,” she warned, as she also told him there will be consequences if he fails to report to the police as required.

“Leaving with convictions of this nature, if you are to find yourself in trouble, it will read very poorly.” She warned him not to subject anyone else to the grief he subjected to the two cousins and the taxi driver more than a decade ago.

“Don’t take away from anybody else.”

Before going through the mathematical calculations of each of his sentences, the judge outlined the factors she found to be aggravating.

She said what began as a robbery of the taxi driver developed into the robbery and kidnapping of the two women, their unlawful detention, their sexual degradation and assault and the forcing of the male victim to perform criminal sexual acts on them.

One of the cousins, 22, was shot six times in the ordeal and managed to survive while her cousin was also shot six times, but died at hospital five hours after they were found by police.

“The pain and suffering involved. They were left for dead.”

She also found aggravating that the women were both on their menstrual cycles when one was raped and the other sexually assaulted.

“The deceased was told she was a waste of time after she was raped. She pleaded for her life… dragged from the road by her hair.

There were not many mitigating factors, Ramsumair-Hinds admitted as Allen, she said, had a “director role” in the escalation of the crime.

“It was he who exited the vehicle and robbed the women. It was he who pulled her by her hair and asked them if they had children. It was he who said ‘I could do with something tonight’ and started the sexual assault. It was he who directed the male victim to perform the sexual acts on the female victims.”

She also admitted she was troubled by his suggestion he was genuinely remorseful.

“That troubled me. He is still saying, at this age, he was influenced by peers and friends yet it was he who directed the offences.” Allen was 20 at the time of the offences.

“That he embraced his wrongdoing, I took with a pinch of salt.”

However, she said his willingness to enter the plea bargain process and agree to heavy sentence recommendations was to his credit.

Allen entered plea discussions with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and on June 22, it was agreed he would plead guilty to 11 counts and will be discharged of the others.

Allen committed the offences on October 19, 2008.

He and two accomplices, a man and a woman, pretended to be passengers as they boarded the taxi driver’s car after a party in St Augustine.

After approximately 15 minutes, Allen forced the driver to stop next to two women who were walking on the road. The women were then robbed of their cellphones and were forced to enter the taxi.

The driver was then forced to drive to an abandoned house in Mt Lambert.

At the house, the teenager was raped, and her 22-year-old cousin, who had her period, was sexually assaulted.

One of the women was forced to perform oral sex on the taxi driver. As they were leaving the house, the taxi driver managed to run away.

Allen and his accomplices attempted to find him but were unsuccessful and left in his car.

However, they were forced to abandon the car in Champ Fleurs as he were unable to properly drive the vehicle as it had a manual transmission.

The cousins were shot and when police eventually found the car, the teenager had already succumbed to her injuries. Her older cousin was taken to hospital and survived.

Allen was arrested and charged after he was identified by her and the taxi driver.

The State was represented by assistant DPP Danielle Thompson. His attorney was public defender Michelle Gonzalez.

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Haley and Naomi Browne went from seeing their new-found friend Abrielle Lovell every day at their new school, to not seeing her ever again in what feels like the blink of an eye.

Tragedy struck just before they wrapped up their first Trinity Term at The Combermere School and Abrielle – Haley’s close friend – disappeared overnight.

At age 12, Abrielle tragically passed away on July 4, 2022 in a house fire. Her mother, Allison Lovell, father Anthony and 10-year-old brother Alexander also died in the blaze at Breezy Hill, St Philip.

It’s been just over four months, since the fatal blaze, and though that may seem like a short time for some, the twins who felt the impact of Abrielle’s life, wanted to make sure that her spirit remains alive at the Waterford, St Michael institute. Together they wrote to the Board of Management at the School and the principal, and then their wish was passed on to the Ministry of Environment and National Beautification.

Their efforts were successful.

Today, Wednesday, November 16, a tree was planted by the basketball courts, where Abrielle limed with her friends.

“My class always sat under this particular tree because that was the last place that we saw her. It was a Tuesday because exams were happening. That was the last time we saw her and then the next week on Monday she died,” Haley told Loop.

The second-form secondary student expressed that she was happy to see her friend will not be forgotten and that she and others could still come to Abrielle’s spot in the future.

“… that tree will grow as big as her spirit and kindness,” Haley added.

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Opposition Spokesman on National Security, Senator Peter Bunting, has described as “political theatre”, Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ declaration of states of emergency (SOEs) in seven parishes.

“… This is not about law and order. This is not about reducing violent crime. This is about political theatre and political propaganda; the main core competence of this Andrew Holness-led Administration,” declared Bunting on Wednesday.

Holness, at a press conference on Tuesday, cited the increase in murders and gang activities as justification for the security measure across the southern arc of Kingston and St Andrew, St Catherine and Clarendon, and the tri-parish area of Westmoreland, Hanover and St James.

However, Bunting is pushing back against the latest use of the SOEs as a crime-fighting tool, even amid hope expressed by Holness that the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) would support the measure, given that he said some of its own parliamentarians had appealed to him (Holness) for help with crime in their respective constituencies.

“It’s reasonable to conclude that the declarations of the states of emergency across a number of parishes is the prime minister performing political theatre,” insisted Bunting in a video statement that has been shared by the PNP.

He said National Security Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Dr Horace Chang, in trying to build interest for Sunday’s Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) annual conference, had indicated weeks before that Holness would “announce something”.

At the time, Chang, the JLP General Secretary, had stated that the prime minister would be unveiling the Government’s plan to tackle crime.

Bunting also took a swipe at Chang for his “continued management-by-excuses approach to his portfolio”, arguing that from last weekend the national security minister has been “willing to go back seven years to say that we (the PNP) didn’t fund the police adequately.

Dr Horace Chang

“In fact, he (Chang) copied the defund the police slogan that is popular in the USA,” the senator claimed.

“… But the truth of the matter is, we could all see this building up to try and create some interest in their (the JLP’s) conference.”

Arming himself with purported police statistics, Bunting said since this year, Kingston and St Andrew have been among the few parishes in which significant reductions have been seen in murders and shootings. According to him, murders were down by 17.5 per cent, while shootings decreased by 23 per cent.

“Yet, a state of emergency has been declared in Kingston and St Andrew. So, even by the JLP’s justification of using it to address increase in violent crimes, this doesn’t qualify,” Bunting maintained.

He said, “curiously”, murders in St Elizabeth, Trelanwy and Manchester have increased by more than 70 per cent so far this year, yet SOEs were not declared in any of those parishes.

“The Opposition has long held that the routine use of states of emergency as a tool of policing is unconstitutional. The courts have upheld that view in at least two cases, one of which is now before the Court of Appeal.

“We would have anticipated that the Government, out of respect for the judgments of the court, would not have continued this unconstitutional use,” stated Bunting.

Pushing back at Holness’ hope that the Opposition would support the current SOEs and any extension to be sought by the Government, Bunting said the JLP leader, while in Opposition, purportedly stated: “‘This (crime-fighting) is not a whole-of-society-approach; this is the responsibility of Government. There is a lot that can be done!’”

Seven years later, said the former PNP Member of Parliament (MP), “We still haven’t seen what that ‘lot’ is from the prime minister.

“… And now, he (Holness) is constantly seeking to deflect responsibility from himself – the figure in authority – to the Opposition.”

Bunting charged that the country is now “fed up” with such an approach, pointing to the JLP Administration’s time in office for 11 of the last 15 years.

“Stop trying to blame others, or as former Opposition leader Keith Rowley (in Trinidad and Tobago) said: ‘When a Government is constantly blaming an Opposition for their failure to perform, it’s time to go,” Bunting concluded.

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