Armed operations shock 7MB residents and visitors
(CNS): The sight of armed police officers in pursuit of a suspect on Friday came as a shock to residents and visitors on Grand Cayman’s famous Seven Mile Beach. As police pursued two men, one of them believed to be armed, who ran from a stop and search off the West Bay Road, armed officers spread across the beach area, directing people to go indoors.
They eventually arrested one of the men, who had gone into the sea close to La Covia condos, but the second escaped during the pursuit, in which police fired shots. As of Monday morning, the second man, Justin Kyle Jackson, remained at large.
Meanwhile, social media was abuzz with concerns about the crime spilling over into areas where residents and visitors are normally removed from Cayman’s social ills and their consequences.
In a message about the two murders last week and efforts by the RCIPS to apprehend the small group of men they believe are responsible for the killings and a number of robberies, Premier Wayne Panton said he shared the concerns of people in the community but asked them to remain calm.
“I am asking the community as well to be as intolerant of this type of activity as we in government are, to be as committed to addressing these concerns and preventing these sorts of needless, painful tragedies from occurring,” he said, as he urged people to share what they know with the police about the people committing these crimes.
While police have now arrested several suspects in connection with the murders of Harry Elliott and Caine Thomas, so far no charges have been laid.
See Panton’s message on CIGTV:
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
My first question: Why chase the man on the beach? You had his accomplice. All you had to do is ask him, where does he live, hang out?
My second question: Does this SWAT like team, practice shooting? They were using semi automatic weapons? When fired at, why didn’t they wound him at least?
My third Question: Are the police hired with english as one of their subjects? An officer needs to able to write a report.
My third question: Can we hire more educated officers who have at least 10 years of experience in a first world country? Its time we accept, its needed with specialties in gangs.
That’s not what the OP is referring to. I doubt the Rockers came from Jam either.
I would be more concerned about the RCIPS FRU shooting themselves by accident.
FRU are all show and no competence.
Stop posing as a Caymanian, “Unhappy Caymanian”.
What do we expect, when the youth (not making excuses for them) see corruption at the very core of our government.
Say it again
The island has grown without being managed. It’s time to start trimming those dead branches.
Yes. Tightening up immigration laws, so that status Grant’s are slowed down. This has been one of the biggest causes of harm to the Cayman Islands, although those that have received the benefit thereof will dispute this or try to shift the blame.
The laws are fine. The civil service fails to follow or enforce them.
It’s Caymanians who are committing these crimes. Not immigrants.
Mr. Premier with all due respect sir, the last time you told us to remain calm, over 22,000 residents caught COVID and over 27 deaths under your watch.
A fair few of the old politicians warned explicitly about the Caribbeanization of Cayman. It’s this simple, the 3rd world, gun, gang, rough and tumble culture we import via persons or media to this Island is only going to lead us to hell.
When young Caymanian men talk about “we are Caribbean, we know how to fight” what does that say about it?
We would do well to desperately try and return to civilised means, and by that I mean, the British, old school sensibilities. Yes England may be full of gang violence and grooming gangs, but we don’t need to forget the principle.
Guess where the British gangs come from..Yardies a clue..?
Not sure that’s where the skinheads originated.
Germany.
Agreed. It’s always somebody else.
I agree that we need to go back to a more courteous and respectful society, but don’t think putting a nationality on it helps, because their are good and bad people to have come to Cayman (from both England and other parts of the Caribbean).
But the problems of drugs and guns and teenage pregnancy and absent fathers and low standards and crap education are not being imported to Cayman from the UK, are they?
Which drugs? Many users are from UK, are they not?
The ones from England are rooted where though? Look south west.
Who makes these guns? I know it’s the ‘civilized’ world that stole the lands and enslaved uncivilized people to ‘civilise’ them. I haven’t lost sight of who the real master criminals are! They are the so called civilised, racist first world. An ever present danger to non white peoples, wherever they are on the planet. Just read the history its not fake news.
Actually the slaves were enslaved in Africa by Africans and the sold to Europeans (and latterly some Africans) and kept in slavery. The whole episode is horrific and an incorrigible blemish on the histories of many peoples, white AND black.
The Africans sold to Arab slave traders who sold them on.
OK. White and Black and Brown. Humanity sucks.
If the crime on island is from all these other nationalities, then why are the prisons full of Caymanians?
In part because some of the Caymanians are not a Caymanian but the prison and police authorities do not know that.
Probably because this is the Cayman Islands.
Cayman has always had crime that waxes and wanes with larger economic circumstances. Let’s watch as the class divide gets even larger, as wages stagnate, as the price of housing becomes unaffordable to most, to see the resentment of outside money and influence, all within a time of jolting inflation beyond anyone’s control. Dog City? Rock Hole? Seven Mile Beach? What’s the difference? You’ll find that the imaginary geographic lines we draw around relative poverty and crime are just that, imaginary.
This is true of literally the entire world. Things are better here than probably anywhere else in the world. There are very very few places where even the laziest and most unemployable people could walk into a job if they cared to. The real world is a harsh place, this is disneyland.
Every society has criminals, people who make the wrong choices. Some people are down on their luck, some people fall in with the wrong people, some are just lazy and would rather make a quick buck than work. Most probably didnt have good role models in their life.
It has nothing to do with inequality in society. It’s a cop out and excuse. 99% of people of modest means and who have been dealt an unlucky hand in life don’t turn to violent crime. They work hard and try to better their situations.
You all need to revisit the so called 10 year gun sentence. By time lawyers argue and please they end up with 6 years? Then out in 4 to shoot you again.
20 years mandatory. Thats zero tolerance. No pleading or begging 20 years.
@6:19 Exactly. We had a 20 year mandatory sentence and our spineless politicians changed it to 10 years and gave judges discretion to further reduce the time, hence criminals (wild animals) are not afraid to serve a few years. Maddening!
You were all warned years ago! One stray bullet hits a tourist and a whole heap of people on permanent stipends. Only a matter of time now.
Thanks to all the Politicians and Chief Officers who were to busy looking after themselves.
If they had not outrun the police this armed search along the beach, alarming residents would no have been necessary.More emphasis on physical fitness is required from the armed response teams.
You think its easy running with 10 to 30 pounds of gear on is easy while trying to catch a person with shorts and a tshirt lol.
Sidenote, for sure some fat fcks on the force
I guess none of the posters have ever been to London, Manchester, Glasgow or Wichita.
Daily occurrence in those and many other places.
Happens once in a blue moon in Cayman and these clowns are calling for direct rule.
Calm down folks. The sky is not falling.
I guess that is what they don’t live in London, Manchester, Glasgow or Wichita, NYC, Chicago or Philadelphia, Portland,
Can you converse without name calling?
Per capita there is way more gun crime in Cayman than in any U.K. city!
Go back home then please.
I’m so glad that we are doing better than Basra, Mogadishu etc.
You can have real problems without comparing them to extremes in an attempt to minimise it.
Can’t remember the last time there was a mass shooting in glasgow or Manchester by the way.
I’m guessing you’ve been struck by a cloud or two..
You are forgetting that the UK, for example, has a population of 60 million vs. 60,000.
Two murders here = 2,000 murders in the UK.
There were actually 594 murders in 2021 in the UK.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/homicideinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2021
So we have a HIGHER murder rate per thousand than the UK.
Package deal direct rule of both BVI and Cayman coming soon at this rate. Can’t say we don’t need it.
How does direct rule re corruption in the BVI have anything to do with some local CI muppets running around shooting each other?
Partly because some of the CI muppets are not local. And our corruption and ineptitude is a significant factor in why they are running around here
we can only pray for that. this rag-tag bunch of unqualified independents are a disaster….and ppm alternative is not much better
There will be a better real alternative to PPM, UDP and PACT next election, which will be here soon enough in 2025. After a quarter century of same of same old, it’s time for major change.
Cayman is nowhere like BVI. Fools that say this don’t understand the difference.
We should be proud of Cayman rather than running it down because of a very small group of people that participate in this type of behavior.
Dissent is not disloyalty. It is time to end the charade. For the good of Cayman we need to say it, and say it clear. We are not ready to govern ourselves. Ineptitude and corruption, partly imported from elsewhere in the region, have taken hold. It must be excised. Now, once and for all. For the love of Cayman.
I would have thought UK PM Boris would have either resigned or be in the Scotland yard coop by now.
Cause baby, talk about CORRUPTION, look no further than #10!
The police charge you for an illiterate police report for doing no investigations into a crime now, so they will have to pay me if they want any information from me in future! It works both ways you know.
If the police did not go after these criminals – we would be complaining. Now, that they are out to apprehend them, we are complaining. This kind of stuff goes on in other countries dailey – just watch the news out of Florida, the police chase bad guys all the time in public and residential areas.
I say – catch them anyway you can and get them off the streets – no one is safe until they are locked up!
The people complaining about cops doing their jobs are not logical people. These are typical yuppies Caymanians and Expats alike, whk like to pretend crjme doesnt exist because they can retreat to East End every weekend. And besides, how does a 23 year old outrun a group of “highly trained” specialized units? Its ridiculous.
Why would anyone talk to the police when any information provided is not secure.
I have first hand experience of information provided to the police in a statement going to the reckless Cayman Marl Road then Published ?
The police have a serious issue .And certainly I would NEVER supply any information to them .
I value my life
@1:24pm Have you heard of 800-Tips. You seem very close to these people and the crime so it would be in your best interest to do it anonymously.
What a shame we cannot do it anonymously to the freaking police! Do you have any concept of how outrageous and problematic that is? How it meets the very definition of corruption, and yet you accept it as mainstream?
So “no it all”4.35pm ( CMR Lover ) it was a witness statement “part published on CMR”
I was trying to do my civil duty
But PACT funded crazy Sandra hill, made it something it wasn’t and Could have revealed who I was and therefore threatened my life
The police turned a blind eye. Utter corruption
And yet the British government ( governor ) does nothing
It’s Banana republic just like BVI
This is the end result of past governments failing to listen to those of us that were sounding the alarm 2+ decades ago.
Make that 40 years ago when kids formed gangs and schools, churches and politicians had their heads in the sand .
We are now dealing with a second generation of criminals that don’t know any better.
We have to accept that it became a part of our culture.
Parental responsibility. If you are old enough to breed, you better be mature enough to parent.
Jamaica. Try explaining it to that lost cause (that we are importing without limitation, in breach of our own laws).
I guess there is a price to pay for Overdevelopment, Globalization, and “Bringing Cayman into the twenty-first century”!
All of Unna wishing now we could go back to the Islands that time forget lol.
Rubbish, 2003 has a lot to do with this, not all, but a lot.
And 19 years later not even a hint of an investigation into what was quite probably an overt act of corruption, that irreparably harms Cayman to this day. The lack of any investigation, despite the obvious scope and scale of what transpired, destroys any confidence in our police and systems of good governance.
Corruption. That seems to be the word to describe what has overcome us. #Leggewasright.
Fact check: there are 13 Jackson surnames on the list, but not this at large perpetrator.
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.ky/portal/page/portal/cabhome/publications/2003-status-grants
Umm, and you think it impossible that this scum is the child of someone on that list? And if you cannot contemplate how and why it is that hundreds of others on that list had no right to be on it, or that they have caused untold harm to Cayman, then I cannot help you. How long had the developer of the Ritz Carlton (and other members of his team named on it) been living exclusively in Cayman when that list was published?
No earlier than mid to late 1990s.
Later. But in any event, no long-standing connection. I wonder why the special treatment?
What we need to do is raise these kids to reject gang culture and ‘hood’ ways of life. It is not cute and you will only end up in prison. Raise them to be respectful, law abiding citizens. This is what is holding our young Caymanian men back.
There’s nothing preventing our young Caymanian men from wearing a birth control condom to prevent unwanted pregnancies, except maybe a shortage on brains. These devices have been around since the early 18th century. Pretty simple in how they work. Never have that repelling obligation in the first place. Never hold that resentment over cancelled life plans. Never have to watch them resort to the worst type of camaraderie in the absence of a loving home. Never have the STDs either. Wait until you commit to the right person, and then plan a family. That’s the proper order of operations well before kids.
This looks like a photo from a beach in Cancun last year where the army was patrolling during a gang shootout. Not a good at all for our islands. We need to crackdown on this immediately before we end up like just another crime ridden Caribbean island.
Before you become a crime ridden island? Too much crime already. Think of the headlines in the past 6-12 months!
No one will snitch to the cops cuz now we’re going to get murdered if we do. Because the cops do not keep you a secret. Time to get rid of most of them on the force who don’t belong here. Time to start enforcing traffic laws which would probably pick up a bunch of criminals as well.
Looking more and more like Mexico. So sad for our islands.
Jamaica*
What a dump SMB is, why anyone would want to live there is unknown.
It used to be nicer, in its natural state, without so much man-made disturbance of nature.
Do us a solid and leave with your crap attitude.
Oh dear, somebody has obvs paid too much for an overpriced crappy condo.
Where in Mexico was this?
Sinaloa Beach.
You are more Miami than Brac now, from a crime perspective, and you need a Miami level of policing (armed and dangerous), and probably a different approach to self defence (see above). Your massive increase in gang activities is truly regrettable, but it is what it is and denying it won’t change it. Best of luck.
At least in Miami they are able to investigate and they do it fast.
We.can too. But only when the suspect is named Skylar.
There is a cultural problem where our community is extremely reluctant to provide information to police or testify if a case goes to court.
It this wasn’t the case the amount of crime and corruption would be significantly lower.
Panton’s choice of words asking people to be “intolerant of this type of activity” is interesting, in light of PACT being fully tolerant of Cabinet Ministers with checkered backgrounds in terms of criminal conduct and anti-social activity.
could be that you get shot in the head if you agree to cooperate. There is no witness protection, island is too small.
Witnesses that come forward are killed in Cayman, don’t you know that?
1107….you mean like that lady that went out to her birthday party alone and was taken to a remote part of Island right here and killed? People know but not talking!
Bullshit. I have come forward and reported numerous crimes, from drug dealing to pension theft. In each case the police did nothing (except tell the drug dealers that I had reported on them). We have a policing and wider governance issue. There are great cops and civil servants, but overall, it is a shitshow.
Eye-witness testimony is the least reliable evidence there is, and degrades rapidly in first 72 hours. Normally it’s only used to corroborate contemporaneous evidence, such as CCTV, fingerprints, ledgers, emails, texts, geolocation, invoices, etc. to put a human and motivation face on the other irrefutable facts. In Cayman, securing the other physical evidence is disregarded or rejected completely in favour of circumstantial eye witness accounts. We don’t even have an evidence lab, or coroner. In Cayman, the officer will take an eye witness account, and walk over the handcuffed perpetrator, identifying the witness against them with their finger, and ask if it’s all true. That’s the deck of cards we’re dealing with.
10:41, When witnesses are murdered, shot, chopped, stabbed, intimidated etc its no wonder nobody talks!
Anyone remember when they had the witness in Police protection staying at the Islander hotel and they were found, chased out into the middle of WB Rd by Sheldon (in front of what is now Peppers) and gunned down?
How do you think that happened?
People don’t trust those who they have to divulge the information too and rightly so.
Yes. Sheldon Brown did that guy in witness protection at the Islander bad. It was surprising that he survived that vicious attack.
Luck. Nothing to acknowledge our police for.
Worst week on record and deafening silence from our Chief of Police. Add to that a half dozen boats making landfall or capsizing in the shelter of our North Sound that the fully-staffed and equipped interdiction agencies never saw approaching. How is that even possible? There needs to be an urgent discussion with Governor, a press conference, and maybe he should step down at that time. Spring break is over.
2009 was the worst
“Worst week on record and deafening silence from our Chief of Police.”
Minus the two press conferences or?
commissioner not chief
Zero RCIPS Q&A press conferences. A couple press releases. One disgruntled Premier press release.
Who’s bright idea was it to let go of, or not install similar sea surface radar that was operating here near the shooting range in the early 90’s. We might well utilise such technology these days but it seems certain top echelon individuals don’t want it. Why?
One in the Brac. One in East end. Inexpensive and we would be covered. But we are corrupt so it will not happen.
This is what addressing the issue looks like. We cannot have it both ways. We as a nation have let this get to this point and in order to address it, armed police in the streets are needed. This occurs in big cities around the world from time to time and all the global ‘VIP’ should be aware of this. If this ‘shocks’ them they have been too far removed from the realities of life.
And our residents, if this shocks you then we all need to take a more concerned and active role in our local communities. Start with your neighbourhoods and build a good community where you develop trust with each other and compassion. Start raising children to be respectful of themselves and others and in a few years maybe we won’t need to have our own running from police.
Flint Town.
People should watch it; lots and lots of similarities and provides an idea where sh*t is heading if it keeps up the way its going.
Don’t expect any witnesses to come forward after the execution of the last one.
Yeah not a good look Cayman. Throw away the key or deport these scumbags.
or stop them coming in the first place.
why do we keep letting people come here from certain countries which has been shown to cause nothing but problems in our jusristiction.
Deport them to West Bay ???
Lock them up and don’t allow the 60% reduction
Harsher penalities
Sterlise them to stop the unwanted unplanned preganiances which end up creating a 3rd generation on NAU …