For residents of Job Lane, the police killing of Giovanni Ellis on Monday was bittersweet.

Ellis, the person of interest in the murder of nine-year-old Kelsey Ferrigon in the Spanish Town community last Friday, was shot dead by cops during an alleged confrontation in Sandy Bay, Clarendon.

As news of Ellis’ killing reverberated across the airwaves, the residents welcomed his demise but expressed that jungle justice would have been a better punishment for the crime he was suspected of committing against the minor in the community.

“If him can look at a nine-year-old and do that to a child, him evil. To me, them shoulda carry him back round here, back in the place where him commit the crime, and make everybody see him and everybody have a piece of him,” a male resident told the Jamaica Observer.

“Me would have liked to have a piece of him, cause me have three daughter. Him dead too easy,” he added. “Him shoulda torture, when it a bite him, him waan dead and can’t dead.”

A female resident, who said Kelsey was her twin daughters’ best friend, was also of the view that Ellis should have been brought back to the community where he allegedly committed the act.

“Honestly, I prefer that the police weren’t the ones who caught him,” she said. “I’m glad he is gone, but not that way.”

She said her daughters are not coping well with the news of Kelsey’s death.

“She was the twins’ best friend. Sometimes she is over here. I don’t know what to say because I am hurting, the kids are still scared, and the family wants me to get counselling for them,” she added.

The Grade three student of St John’s Primary School was found dead at her home at Job Lane last Friday, partially naked, upside down in a barrel. It was suspected that she was beaten and sexually assaulted.

Ellis was subsequently named by police as a person of interest in connection with the incident. He was reportedly on bail for a charge of cruelty to a child.

One resident of the community suggested that the justice system revisit how people charged with child abuse-related offences are handled.

“People like those, you have to lock them away, that’s the only thing you can do. It’s real regrettable that something like that happened. It should not have happened in the first place, but the good thing is that he was caught,” the man said.

Head of the St Catherine North Division Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Hopton Nicholson said, while murders are down significantly in St Catherine, there have been increased reports of sexual offences.

“We welcome the decrease in murders and shootings, but we realise that, so far this year, the reports of sexual offences, compared to last year, have been on the increase,” SSP Nicholson said, noting however that “a lot” of the reports are of incidents that took place a year or two years ago but are just being reported.

“What is disturbing is that the majority of the perpetrators identified so far this year are persons who are supposed to be the protectors of the victims. We are talking about fathers; we are talking about grandfathers, uncles, cousins, family friends and other caregivers,” Nicholson said while speaking at St John’s Primary School on Monday.

Nicholson said the victims are between the ages of three and 42 years, while the perpetrators are between the ages of 12 and 80 years.

“We have already arrested a grandfather for molesting his grandchild. That’s the society which we are living in. We want to implore parents and guardians to be extremely vigilant. We also implore citizens to report any suspicion of abuse with regard to children and ensure that you tell the police the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” he said.