Kingston – Police were on Wednesday questioning a 23-year-old man, in connection with the brutal slaying of a 31-year-old mother and her four children in the town of Chapelton in the central parish of Clarendon, on Tuesday.
Police confirmed that the suspect had been named as a person of interest in the murders of Kemisha Wright and her four children – Kimana Smith, 15; Shemari Smith, 10; Kafana Smith, 5 and 23-month-old Kishaun Henry. They all had their throats slashed.
Police said that the man of interest, believed to be a cousin of the deceased, was detained in Trelawny, northwest of here on Tuesday evening.
Earlier, Prime Minister Andrew Holness, said that all resources necessary would be deployed to bring to justice the perpetrator involved in the killings, as he strongly condemned the “heinous and senseless act of violence”.
Holness said that the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) has started its investigations and appealed to people with information to come forward.
“The police, the Minister of National Security, have assured me that they are going to be putting all the resources into ensuring that the perpetrator is caught and brought to justice,” he said.
Holness decried the act as a “new low in the level of violence in the society” and urged all Jamaicans to turn away from violence as a means of resolving disputes and conflict.
“All Jamaicans must unequivocally condemn the murder of four innocent children and their mother. . . . This is not just [a] domestic dispute. This murder represents an attack on our civility, an attack on our sensibilities and it is an attack on our nation,” he said, urging an all-of-society approach and commitment to stamping out violence.
The mass killing sent shock-waves across the country. (CMC)
