MONTEGO BAY, St James — Government Senator Charles Sinclair has called out the St James Police Division for what he described as a lack of transparency regarding the current investigation into last month’s gruesome murder of nine-year-old Gabriel King.

The child, who was autistic, was found with his throat slashed, his body slumped on the back seat of his mother’s car, which had been reported stolen only minutes earlier.

Noting that the young boy’s killing has left the country in shock, Senator Sinclair also shared that well-thinking Jamaicans have become heavily invested in the investigation and are expressing concern that it is being swept under the rug.

“When I go to Kingston [people] are asking me; when I move around Montego Bay it is the same thing. I say I can’t speak to that, but then I believe for greater transparency, as is done in other places, update the public,” Sinclair said during Thursday’s monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation in his capacity as councillor (Jamaica Labour Party, Montego Bay, North East Division).

“There is a lack of information to the public [regarding] the state of the investigation,” Sinclair added.

Speaking directly to commanding officer of the St James Police, Senior Superintendent Vernon Ellis, Sinclair said: “There are comments that are saying that maybe the police are having a difficulty in getting information and assistance from institutions in respect to their investigations, and if that is so, it would be very sad.”

He continued: “I don’t know if you can say why there is no update [because] we are not getting the feeling that there is any transparency in this whole process.”

In response, SSP Ellis said that while he understands the anxiety being experienced by citizens, the police “are doing sensitive investigations”. This, he explained, is the main reason that the police are not giving regular updates to the public.

“The information cannot run parallel to the investigation because some of the time, if you are doing that, you are going to interfere with the investigation,” SSP Ellis said.

“So, when we are at sensitive points, [if] we need the assistance of the public we come out, put things inside of the public domain and request that type of support,” the commanding officer continued.

Acknowledging the seriousness of the crime committed against the boy, SSP Ellis stated that the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) is working assiduously to bring whoever is responsible for the crime to justice.

“I must say that this matter is one of those that has been given the highest level of attention. The Major Investigation Division (MID) from Kingston, headed by a senior superintendent, a superintendent, and a deputy superintendent, were deployed to support all of this. From the divisional level, a deputy superintendent is leading that aspect of it,” said SSP Ellis.

“We are making inroads. I would say, maybe not at the pace that the public would love, because if we were making inroads at that pace somebody would be in cuffs. However, all the lines of enquiry, the forensic aspect of it [and] the reviews are being conducted in a systematic way,” Ellis told the council.

The career policeman declared that he, too, has an interest in solving the case.

“For me, I don’t want this to go down beside my name. I want to see that cleared, and all the guys who have been deployed on it, too. None of us who have our careers out there want to see this go down beside us, so we are doing our very best,” Ellis said.

Responding to the concern raised by Sinclair regarding a lack of information forthcoming to the police, Ellis stated that this is not so.

“I must say that we have gotten support from the public. No one has prevented us from accessing CCTV footage or whatever information they have,” he said.

“You know people will throw tricks, saying, ‘You’re not being transparent’ because they want to squeeze information out of us to run with it… we do not want to do that. All we ask is that [individuals] respectfully allow us to carry out this investigation,” Ellis said.