The Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom) is reporting that 12 people have been fatally shot by security forces so far this year.

This is in comparison to the 13 people who were fatally shot for the entire month of January in 2023.

The commission provided the statistics while noting that it has launched investigations into four fatal shooting incidents which occurred between January 14 and 15.

According to Indecom, it commenced investigations into fatal shooting incidents in Rollington Town, Kingston and Portmore, St Catherine on January 14, while investigators launched probes into incidents which occurred along Mountain View in Kingston and Hopewell in Hanover on January 15.

The deceased men have been identified as Akeem Chance; 23-year-old Alex Madden; 38-year-old Paul Cassanova and 21-year-old Nyron Cameron respectively. In each of the incidents, there was an alleged recovery of a firearm.

All four fatal shootings were reported to Indecom as planned targeted operations, of which one of the incidents was a joint police and military operation.

In that regard, Indecom has noted a significant increase in planned operations where fatalities are occurring.

“All such operations involve organisation, preparation and scheduling. A loss of life by agents of the state requires objective records of the interactions. In the interest of accountability and transparency, it requires every effort to be made for security force personnel to be equipped with body-worn cameras,” the commission said.

“All incident scenes were examined, and the evidential material was recovered, processed and packaged. The hands of the deceased men were all swabbed for gunshot residue.  The concerned officers provided initial accounts and were served with Section 21 Notices, pursuant to the Independent Commission of Investigations Act, 2010 to submit statements and attend interviews,” it added.

Indecom said planned operation interviews have also been scheduled with the operation team leaders.