MANCHESTER, Jamaica — Police have launched a manhunt for a Manchester taxi operator following the stabbing death of his spouse at their home in Newport on Friday night.

Police named the deceased woman as 28-year-old Shadae Sherry-Ann Brown, a nurse employed to a private medical facility in Mandeville.

A senior police source told OBSERVER ONLINE that about 8:30 pm, Brown and her common-law husband had a dispute at their home in Daley’s Grove, Newport.

According to the source, it is alleged that “the man used a knife to inflict several wounds to her body”.

She was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead.

The man reportedly fled the scene.

On Thursday, Police Commissioner Major General Antony Anderson expressed concern about domestic violence while addressing a town hall meeting in Mandeville.

“People… have quarrels with each other, over land over a fence, over a pair of Clark’s shoes, $100, bottles, and so we had a situation where a father sold the bottles belonging to his son and he was murdered… So when you start to see that that’s something that the police respond to… we won’t even know about that there’s a problem or conflict like that until it has happened,” Anderson said.

He added: “However, sometimes these conflicts, persons in the community know about it, but sometimes they say, ‘well it’s not really my business, so we don’t really tell the police because we probably don’t want to get police involved in it’, but sometimes if you reach out to the police, then we can actually do an intervention before it becomes a serious crime,” said the commissioner.

Statistics from the police show that up to March 5, Manchester recorded 11 murders since the start of the year when compared to five for the corresponding period last year.