FALMOUTH, Trelawny — The Trelawny police believe that three men and two women they held last Monday travelling in a motor car in which an illegal firearm wrapped in a baby’s shirt was discovered were on their way to avenge the murder of 27-year-old hotel worker Kimorley Forbes committed the day before.

The constabulary had reported that on Monday, May 10, 2021 about 5:30 pm, a police team conducting spot checks stopped and search a silver Toyota Axio along Alps main road in Ulster Spring, Trelawny.

Police said that during the search a Browning single-action 9mm pistol with six rounds and the serial number erased was found on the back seat of the vehicle wrapped in a baby’s shirt.

The driver of the motor car and the four passengers were subsequently arrested and charged with illegal possession of firearm.

Last week, commander of the Trelawny Police Division, Superintendent Carlos Russell, commended the cops at the regular monthly meeting of the Trelawny Municipal Corporation.

“I must also state that since the start of the year we have seized six firearms and 37 rounds of ammunition. The latest one was on Monday when a vehicle was intercepted along the Alps main road and it was searched and a firearm was found in it. That vehicle, we understand, was on its way to the Wait-a-Bit area where we had that murder on Sunday,” Superintendent Russell said.

“I just want to commend those officers, because we believe that if that vehicle was not intercepted then we may have had incidents of shootings in the Wait-a-Bit area as a reprisal for the murder on Sunday. So we want to commend the officers who made that seizure along that road,” he added.

The police had reported that about 5:30 pm on Sunday, May 9 Forbes was among friends at the home of 28-year-old businessman David Lee having a drink. Lee is alleged to have pulled his licensed Glock 19 pistol and shot the hotel worker, after shoving him in the face.

The police were summoned and upon their arrival Forbes was found lying in a pool of blood while the suspect sat in the living room.

Lee has since been arrested and charged with murder.

The incident came a day after Nickeisha Keeling, 29, unemployed of Parnassus, Clark’s Town, was hacked to death, allegedly by her common-law husband, 62-year-old Stenneth Wilson, who turned himself in to the police.

The police have charged Wilson, otherwise called Uncle, of Clark’s Town in Trelawny, with Keeling’s murder.

During his address at the municipal corporation meeting Superintendent Russell also reported that the murder tally in the parish stood at six since the start of the year, three fewer than the nine recorded over the corresponding period last year.

He added that the police have so far made arrests and laid charges in connection with four of the six murders.

“Of those six murders, four have been cleared and persons have been arrested and charged. We are continuing our investigations into the other two and we believe that we can reach somewhere also to charge,” Russell reported.

He shared that since January 1 a total of 37 major crimes have been reported in the parish, in comparison to 54 reported over the same time last year.

“Of concern is the number of aggravated assaults and robberies. At present we are at six robberies, that is above last year’s figure of four. Aggravated assault, though down from last year, is at seven. And we are also concerned with those,” Superintendent Russell said.