分类： society

In southwestern Jamaica, local authorities in the parish of St Elizabeth have launched an urgent push to map out alternative emergency shelters and a new disaster response hub ahead of the 2026 Atlantic Hurricane Season, which officially opens on June 1. The urgent review comes after widespread damage from Hurricane Melissa left most of the parish’s traditional safe haven facilities unusable, leaving officials racing to fill critical gaps in disaster preparedness.

During the monthly general meeting of the St Elizabeth Municipal Corporation held this Thursday, Richard Solomon, the body’s chairman and mayor of Black River, St Elizabeth’s capital, outlined the new direction for preparedness efforts. A high-level gathering convened last week in the national capital Kingston with Desmond McKenzie, Jamaica’s Minister of Local Government and Community Development, pushed local leaders to expand their search beyond the facilities that have historically served as emergency shelters to protect the parish’s residents.

To date, Solomon reported, municipal teams have completed more than 80 percent of assessments for existing potential shelter sites. The results paint a stark picture of the challenges ahead: more than half of all school buildings—long the backbone of the parish’s hurricane shelter network—are no longer structurally sound enough to accommodate displaced residents, after sustaining severe damage from Hurricane Melissa. The situation is even grimmer for community centres, with more than 60 percent of assessed facilities failing to meet basic safety standards for hosting people fleeing storms.

Facing this critical shortfall, the St Elizabeth Municipal Corporation has turned to cross-sector partnerships to address the gap, Solomon explained. The central Jamaican government recently allocated targeted funding to churches across St Elizabeth to support cleanup and structural restoration work on their properties. Officials now plan to leverage these renovated church spaces as alternative emergency shelters for the coming storm season.

“The Ministry of Local Government is fully aware of our critical shelter shortage, which is why we have maintained ongoing dialogue to align on next steps,” Solomon noted. “The Social Development Commission (SDC) has also been fully engaged from the start, as they have supported our assessment work across the parish. We are grateful for the partnership with local churches, the SDC, and community leaders, because transparency around the challenges we face right now is key to building an effective response.”

Beyond securing new shelters, the parish is also actively searching for a new location for its emergency response command centre. The existing Emergency Operation Centre is based in Black River, but widespread damage to the town from Hurricane Melissa has left it unable to function as a coordinated disaster hub, and the town has not yet fully recovered from the 2022 storm.

“I encourage all stakeholders to collaborate with us as we vet potential locations for this critical hub,” Solomon emphasized. “The last scenario we want to face this season is being unable to mount a coordinated response because our command centre is compromised. We need a central base from which we can issue clear directives, coordinate rescue and relief efforts, and respond rapidly if a storm impacts the parish.”

KINGSTON, Jamaica — A senseless act of violent crime has shaken St Andrew’s bustling commercial district, after a 68-year-old courier working for a local financial firm was gunned down in broad daylight during an attempted robbery on Half-Way Tree Road Friday afternoon.

The victim has been identified as Lawrence Kessna, a resident of Phase 2 in Seaview Gardens, St Andrew. The fatal shooting followed a physical struggle between Kessna and the would-be robber, who targeted him shortly after he completed a banking transaction, law enforcement officials confirmed.

According to initial police reports, the incident unfolded at approximately 1:22 p.m., when Kessna had visited a local bank branch to cash a J$10 million cheque on behalf of his employer. The funds were earmarked for customer disbursements across multiple distribution sites, and Kessna carried the cash in a plain grey knapsack when he left the bank building.

As Kessna exited, the suspect immediately moved to seize the knapsack. A struggle broke out when the victim resisted the theft attempt, and the attacker — failing to wrest the bag away — drew a weapon and fired multiple shots, striking Kessna in the upper body. Immediately after the shooting, the perpetrator fled the scene on a motorcycle that had been waiting nearby for a getaway. Bystanders alerted emergency services quickly, and police transported the wounded 68-year-old to Kingston Public Hospital, where medical staff pronounced him dead upon arrival. The grey knapsack holding the cash remained with Kessna and was turned over to law enforcement at the hospital.

In the wake of the brazen midday attack, Jamaica’s top law enforcement officials have issued a firm condemnation of the violence, while extending condolences to Kessna’s family, friends, colleagues and the local business community mourning the loss.

“We will not allow criminals to turn our commercial centres into hunting grounds,” said Assistant Commissioner Michael Phipps, head of the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) Area Four division. Phipps noted that he has issued direct orders for expanded, sustained high-visibility patrols across St Andrew’s commercial districts, a measure designed to disrupt criminal planning, deter potential attacks, and apprehend perpetrators before they can strike.

Phipps confirmed that investigations into the attack are already underway, with forensic evidence collection ongoing and law enforcement partnering closely with the local business community and other key stakeholders to identify and locate the attacker. Financial hubs across the region have been designated a top priority for both investigative work and increased proactive patrols going forward.

In a public safety advisory released alongside the condemnation, Phipps reiterated a longstanding JCF offer for free police assistance to businesses transporting large sums of cash, urging operators to take advantage of the service to reduce risk.

“We continue to urge business operators to ensure strong security measures when transporting especially large amounts of cash. The JCF continues to alert and advise persons doing large financial transactions and transporting large sums of cash to contact the police who are more than willing to assist, free of charge and I repeat free of charge,” Phipps said.

The assistant commissioner added that public safety remains the JCF’s top priority, with stepped-up operations set to continue in high-risk areas around banks, commercial offices, and ATMs. He urged the public to remain calm but maintain a heightened state of vigilance in these zones.

“The JCF remains committed to restoring order and public confidence. We will not relent until those responsible are held,” Phipps said.

In a landmark cross-border fraud case concluded this week, a 34-year-old Jamaican national convicted of orchestrating a years-long lottery scam that stripped a 73-year-old southwest Washington retiree of more than $600,000 — including her home — has been sentenced to three years in federal prison.

Roshard Andrew Carty, extradited to the United States earlier this year to face charges, received his sentence Thursday during a hearing at the U.S. District Court in Tacoma, following his guilty plea entered in February 2026. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington publicly released details of the ruling Friday, laying bare the calculated, relentless tactics Carty used to exploit his vulnerable victim over nearly four years.

Court documents trace the origins of the scheme back to 2020, when Carty first initiated contact with the elderly victim. Posing as a representative of the well-known sweepstakes organization Publisher’s Clearinghouse, he falsely claimed the victim had been selected to receive a $22 million cash grand prize and a new luxury vehicle. To access the supposed windfall, Carty insisted, the victim first needed to pay a series of upfront taxes and processing fees. To prevent her from discovering the fraud, he added a chilling layer of coercion: he claimed the FBI was recording all their conversations and ordered her not to disclose the win or the required payments to any third party.

What began as small, incremental requests for cash quickly ballooned into a systematic looting of the victim’s life savings. Between August 2020 and February 2024, Carty convinced the victim to transfer more than $600,000 to a network of money couriers operating across the United States, who then forwarded the entire sum to Carty in Jamaica. When the victim ran out of liquid savings, Carty manipulated her into borrowing against her home equity, ultimately pressuring her to sell the property entirely to cover the bogus fees. He repeatedly lied that previous transfers had been lost or stolen, demanding additional payments to keep the fake prize claim alive.

Prosecutors emphasized that Carty’s efforts to maintain control of the victim were unprecedented in their persistence. Over the course of the fraud, he contacted her thousands of times using a rotating array of phone numbers and encrypted messaging apps to avoid detection. When the victim tried to cut off contact, he resorted to increasingly invasive tactics: he sent unsolicited tow trucks to her address, ordered repeated pizza deliveries to her home, and even contacted her landlord to request a welfare check, all as a ruse to re-establish communication and continue his manipulation.

Carty was taken into custody by Jamaican law enforcement on August 21, 2025, and extradited to the U.S. to face arraignment in the Western District of Washington two months later, on October 23. Following his guilty plea in February, prosecutors and law enforcement officials called the sentence a just outcome for a crime that targeted a defenseless older adult.

“Even as [the victim] hesitated and tried to resist,” U.S. District Judge Tiffany Cartwright noted during the sentencing hearing, “Carty persisted in contacting her through a variety of means.”

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd echoed that condemnation in remarks after the ruling. “This defendant was relentless in defrauding a vulnerable victim,” Floyd said. “At every turn when she tried to end the contact, he persisted in playing on her isolation and her fear of losing the money she had already lost. He stole the money she was counting on to survive in retirement, so that he could buy luxuries and live large in Jamaica. It is despicable conduct deserving of this punishment.”

FBI Seattle Special Agent in Charge Mike Herrington added that Carty went so far as to abuse public trust in law enforcement to advance his scheme. “His lies in pursuit of her money even went so far as to abuse the trust and credibility of law enforcement by claiming the FBI was recording a call,” Herrington said. “Ultimately, the victim lost her home without receiving any of the fictitious prize money Mr Carty had promised.”

Investigators confirmed during the case that the southwest Washington victim was not Carty’s only target; court records indicate at least one other confirmed victim, with evidence suggesting additional unknown victims may have been targeted across the country. Prosecutors also raised ongoing concerns about public safety once Carty completes his prison term, noting that once he is deported back to Jamaica, U.S. probation authorities will have no ability to supervise his activities or monitor for repeat offending.

In its sentencing memorandum, the government noted that Carty has shown no remorse for the harm he caused. “Carty’s conduct here shows he is relentless, callous, and has an aptitude for deception—he is unlikely to be deterred by the reality that his conduct left people like Victim 1 destitute,” the memorandum read. “Carty knew Victim 1, Victim 2, and likely others were insolvent because of him, and yet he persisted in his scam. And unlike with US-based defendants, the US Probation Office cannot effectively monitor Carty when he returns home.”

Despite the ongoing risks, law enforcement officials said the case sends a clear message to transnational fraudsters targeting U.S. citizens: cross-border operations do not grant immunity from prosecution. “We hope this case sends a message to would-be lottery scammers that the FBI will work just as relentlessly with our partners to hold fraudsters accountable, even when they reside beyond the borders of the United States,” Herrington said.

Four months after Category 5 Hurricane Melissa left a trail of death and widespread destruction across western Jamaica, a Jamaican singer with deep roots in the hardest-hit region has returned to her childhood community to deliver much-needed aid to struggling families still picking up the pieces.

Sophia Brown, who grew up in the farming district of Carisbrook in St Elizabeth — the parish that bore the brunt of the storm’s devastation — had watched the disaster unfold from her home overseas in the months after the storm hit. It was not until her recent trip back to the island that she got to see the full scale of the carnage that had upended hundreds of lives across the region.

Making the trip in early March, Brown and a volunteer team from her non-profit, the Angel Of The Hearts Foundation, distributed 85 care packages stocked with non-perishable food and critical daily essentials to local residents. The foundation extended its support further by dropping off additional relief packages at the Marie Atkins Shelter located in Kingston, Jamaica’s capital.

Recalling the months she spent following the storm’s aftermath from abroad, Brown shared her experience with Jamaica’s *Observer Online*. “It was very heart-wrenching looking from abroad and seeing what was going on in the island. It made me realise that we all have to give back to our community,” she said. Though Brown was born in Kingston, her childhood in Carisbrook gave her a personal connection to the community hard hit by the storm. She also emphasized that the relief effort was not a solo project: the initiative received critical donations from Food For The Poor, fellow Jamaican singer Johnny Osbourne, and Barbara Ellison, all of which made the distribution possible.

When Melissa made landfall on Jamaica on October 28, it left a devastating mark across the country’s western parishes. In addition to catastrophic damage to St Elizabeth, the storm also ravaged neighboring Westmoreland, Hanover, St James and Trelawny. Infrastructure, residential homes, and local schools were leveled, and the storm ultimately claimed 45 lives across the affected regions.

In the wake of the disaster, members of the Jamaican diaspora overseas were moved to action, rallying together to raise millions of dollars in relief funding. All donated funds are currently monitored by the Jamaican government to ensure they reach affected communities.

This is not the first charitable work carried out by Brown’s foundation: the Angel Of The Hearts Foundation runs annual programs supporting people living with Down syndrome. But in the wake of Hurricane Melissa, Brown stressed that long-term, sustained assistance is critical for communities still recovering months after the disaster.

“It was necessary to go into my community and give back. It was really something to witness four months after the hurricane,” she noted, underscoring that recovery from a disaster of this scale is a slow process that requires ongoing support from both local and global contributors.