While watching the TVJ Prime Time News on Sunday, May 17, I saw a report that covered a fatal police shooting in the community of Granville in Montego Bay. Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency in which the community is situated, Marlene Malahoo Forte, was interviewed about the incident and appeared very disturbed. She commented that she could not prejudge the case but that “it doesn’t look good”, adding that the commissioner would have to take immediate action in relation to the officer involved. Malahoo Forte is not only an MP. She was a resident magistrate, the attorney general of Jamaica, and the minister of legal and constitutional affairs. As such, she is well-versed in legal issues.

Later that evening, I realised why Malahoo Forte’s mood was so sombre when I saw a video of the incident. The clip began with an elevated rear view of a black Toyota Voxy van parked on the left side of the road. A policeman, armed with a high-powered rifle, is standing at the driver’s door, speaking with the driver. A woman, later identified as Latoya Bulgin, exits the vehicle and stands beside it while continuing to speak with the officer. She re-enters the van, and another officer, also armed with a high-powered rifle, enters the frame from the left, walks behind the vehicle, and then to the right. Subsequently, several passengers exit the vehicle.

The policeman with whom Ms Bulgin had a conversation is now standing in front of the vehicle, to the left. He points at her and appears to say something to her. The left front wheel of the car turns to the right, and the car moves slightly forward, the tyre making less than one revolution as the brake light, which was on, goes off.  The cop fires one shot from a handgun directly at the driver, through the windshield, then takes three steps backward, and the brake light goes on again as the vehicle comes to an immediate halt. He then walks in front of the vehicle over to the right side while aiming his weapon at her. Less than a minute later, the unresponsive woman is pulled out of the vehicle by the other cop, with the upper part of her body placed, initially, on the road. As her body is being pulled out, the brake light goes off. Her legs are then grasped by the same cop and the rest of her body removed and placed on the road. The officer who shot her then grasps her arms and the other holds her legs, and they swing her body unto the back of a police pickup (beside some tyres) that had just driven up alongside her vehicle, and the back door (tailgate) of the pickup is slammed shut, after eight attempts, against her body. The vehicle then drives off, leaving the driver’s door of her van still open, and as it is driving away, the tailgate that had been forcefully closed against her body falls open, exposing her.