MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — The leadership of the security forces says it is aware of the increase in contract killings on the island and has vowed to develop various tactical approaches to remedy the worrying trend.

Minister of National Security, Dr Horace Chang, while speaking at a press briefing on Saturday said contract killings is a “relatively new phenomenon in terms of its use” adding that the “entire leadership of the security forces recognise the problem and will be looking at how we can develop different tactical approaches and the intelligence to deal with what is a very serious disease.”

“This kind of brutal killing has become too frequent, especially in the last six months or so, where [gunmen in] vehicles tend to drive by an event or a shop and just shoot up whoever is there,” the Minister said noting that the killings are being done by people who are not from the area in which they take place.

“They [gunmen] tend to shoot at random, at a public space, at events, and even though they might kill the one they came for, several other people are injured,” he pointed out.

Chang delivered his address after he visited the grieving families of three-year-old Kamoill Williams Jr and 27-year-old Tavares Stevens in Cascade, Hanover, on April 23. Both were killed in Hilloughby district, Cascade, on April 20. The shooting also left another person injured.

The Minister said that the increase in contract killings presents a challenge for members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force and says the situation “requires a level of intensity of information that we don’t have at this point.”

“It is an area where the Police High Command can look at how they can redeploy their resources and develop areas of intelligence to begin with and to anticipate some of these activities,” Dr Chang added.