KINGSTON, Jamaica — Nearly four decades after gunmen killed her policewoman sister in the line of duty, Denise Johnston is supporting victims of gun violence and trauma through her Pamella Sunrise Foundation.

Johnston is no stranger to gun violence. She was 14 when armed men invaded her Fairfield Road home in 1987 and shot her mother. Nine months later, her sister, Constable Pamella Johnston, was raped and murdered after gunmen boarded a bus in Greendale, becoming the first female police officer in Jamaica killed in the line of duty. Another passenger, Fendel Pearson, was also shot dead in front of his eight-year-old daughter.

“It’s not something you just get over,” Johnston said. “Without knowing the extent of your pain, people keep asking in disbelief if you’ve not gotten over it yet, why haven’t you healed as yet…and why is it taking you so long.”

Portrait of Constable Pamella Joyhnston being unveiled by sister Denise Johnston

“Just as life was getting good….” Johnston continued, recalling the impact of her sister’s death on her family. “She was the glue of the family, holding us together. It broke my family, it scattered us. It was very painful for us even to be in a room together. I have carried a lot of pain.”

It was pain she carried for over 20 years before leaving for California largely as a result of parole being granted to one of her sister’s murderers who she was asked to pardon.

She later sought grief counselling by the hands of a Christian ministry. Her experience led to the creation of the Pamella Sunrise Foundation, a faith-based organisation offering grief counselling and emotional support to families affected by gun crime. The foundation was launched in December 2024 in California and Jamaica.

The faith based foundation provides support through licensed therapists who are also Christians, with a focus on children impacted by violence.

“One of the reasons why the foundation places an emphasis on children is because that troubled child could want to grow up and be different. I have seen different. The Queen’s High School exposed me to a different life. We are about changing the mind, changing emotional patterns,” she said.

Bonding: Tanasha Edwards Blagrove (left) and Denise Johnston

“The course provided is one of understanding grief, finding closure to your grief and the whole issue of forgiveness,” Johnston continued.

In 2024, Johnston forgave the daughter of one of her sister’s killers after the woman reached out for forgiveness through a TikTok video. They met, prayed and have since agreed to work together through the foundation to address the generational impact of violence.

“How could I not want to forgive…it is not for me to be hanging on to unforgiveness. She wants what’s different for her family — and not for them to go the route of her father. It doesn’t have to be that because you have killed someone for me I have to kill someone for you…which consumes entire families. It doesn’t have to be a case of ongoing reprisals. At the end of the day we all have to answer to a God,’” she said.

The founder said camps and workshops will continue to be staged in selected communities where persons will be trained as advocates for counselling. She expressed hopes of strengthening ties with the private sector, the police, the correctional services, schools, and the Ministries of National Security and Education.

“We aim to change the lives and the stories of people who have been disadvantaged by gun crimes from pain and defeat to promise and purpose,” Johnston said.