ST JAMES, Jamaica — The St James police say that up to Thursday, nine individuals have been murdered in the parish.

Deputy Superintendent of police Rogerick Reid, who is the acting operations officer in St James, provided this update at the monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation.

“The St James Division, we have so far recorded nine murders since the start of this year,” Reid told the gathering Thursday morning.

He, however, made it clear that the lawmen in the parish were still working hard to have lower figures this year, keeping the trend going.

“Even though this is nine murders too much, we are still on track as it relates to our goal in terms of having a sub-50 murder realisation this year,” he declared.

He explained that the latest incident recorded in the parish occurred earlier this week in the southern section of St James.

“Our latest murder was in the district of Garlands, this was on Tuesday, February 10, somewhere around 8:00 in the morning,” he explained.

“I just want to say that the suspect is in custody at this time, and in short order, he will be charged as it relates to this incident,” he added.

He expressed thanks to residents who he said played a role in the apprehension of the suspect in relation to the matter.

“We want to publicly thank the citizenry in that space who assisted the police in quickly capturing this suspect,” he said.

Further to that, he said that the police have made strides in removing illegal firearms off the streets in the parish with that figure now up to eight with another seizure on Tuesday.

“We seized two illegal weapons within the Flanker community and one person is also in custody. As a matter of fact, he has been charged this morning as it to one of those weapons,” Reid said.

“He chose to have his day in court and did not challenge the police in a gunfight, and we want all persons who are so in possession of illegal weapons to follow this sort of channel,” he urged.

He also highlighted that operations continue across the parish as the security forces work to remove illegal weapons and persons of interest from the parish.