Suspected mastermind behind deadly St James attack taken into custody

Police have captured a woman believed to be behind last weekend's deadly gun attack on a St James policeman and his family.

She was arrested at a guest house in Hanover on Wednesday.

She is expected to face questioning from investigators.

The police report that the policeman, his wife, and their young son drove to a location in the vicinity of the Elevate Nightclub & Lounge in Reading, St James, where he had arranged to meet an individual with whom he was involved in a motor vehicle transaction.

However, shortly after they arrived at the location, they came under gunfire.

The policeman's spouse, 36-year-old Latoya Crystal Stephenson, a human relations manager of Montego Bay West Village, was hit several times and died on the spot.

The policeman and their young son were seriously injured.

The injured cop, whose identity was not released in the police's official report on the incident, is reportedly attached to the Area One Lottery Scam Task Force.

Reports are that the child, who suffered bullet wounds to the head, and the policeman, who sustained gunshot wounds to the upper body, were both admitted to a medical facility in western Jamaica with life-threatening injuries.

Since the incident, the police have launched several operations to find the attackers, resulting in the fatal shooting of two suspects during alleged confrontations.

The STAR understands that on Wednesday another of the suspected attackers was fatally shot in Salt Spring, St James.

This brings to three the number of suspects killed by the police since the incident.

On Tuesday, Andre 'Likkle Zullu' Reid was fatally shot in Shooters Hill, St Andrew, around 4:30 a.m., while Lindel Gray, otherwise called 'Frass' or 'Sassa Frass', was shot and killed during an alleged confrontation in the Anchovy police area in St James around 1:00 a.m. on Monday.

Meanwhile, the National Neighbourhood Watch Movement has added its voice to the condemnation of the deadly attack on the policeman and his family.

"We are deeply saddened at the loss of his wife. The more than 20,000 strong watchers in communities islandwide, law-abiding citizens and all well-thinking Jamaicans, support and stand with the JCF against lawlessness, criminality, and violence, especially against the security forces who serve, protect, and reassure us daily," the organisation said in a release.

- Andre Williams

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