Entire St Elizabeth police leadership transferred after jailbreak
ST ELIZABETH, Jamaica — The Police High Command has reassigned the entire leadership of the St Elizabeth Police Division following Monday’s jail-break of eight detainees.
Senior police sources confirmed on Friday that the division commander and the support team of officers have been transferred from the division.
The eight high-risk detainees, including a man charged with a quadruple murder, escaped on Monday triggering concerns about security measures at the Black River police station lock-up.
The man, Anward “Kirkie” Hinds, has been charged in relation to the murders of four farmers — Archibald Brown, 60; his brother George Brown, 57; Maurice Sanderson, 40; and Ezra Wright, 73 — in the remote community of Claremont in St Elizabeth on May 27, 2015.
At that time, police had said he was believed to be the leader of a gang, which was a remnant of the infamous Stone Crusher gang. In July 2015 he was found hiding in the ceiling of a house in Hatfield, Manchester, and apprehended.
The other detainees who escaped on Monday are Oral Cole, 31, from Comfort Hall, Manchester; Richard Brown, 34, from Middle Quarters, St Elizabeth; Alrick Hutchinson, 38, from Brighton District, St Elizabeth; and Dean Simpson, 34, from Turner Top, St Elizabeth, who were all in custody charged with robbery with aggravation; Jevaughn Simms, 25, from Copperwood, St James; and Kenneth Stewart, 30, from Beacon Hill, St Catherine, were both being held for murder; and Demar Williams, 29, from Gravel Heights in Spanish Town, St Catherine, who is facing a shooting with intent charge.