KINGSTON, Jamaica — Crediting “good police work and public support” for the capture of accused quintuple Clarendon murderer, Roshane Barnett, Commissioner of Police, Major General Antony Anderson is urging Jamaican citizens to continue supporting the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) crime fighting efforts.

In a digital press conference held on Tuesday, the top cop vowed that the police will “continue to use all the tools available to us to seize illegal guns, pursue the gangs and go after the money used to fund them” and encouraged law-abiding Jamaicans to “continue to support us by saying something if you see or hear something.”

While basking in the fact that the JCF was able to capture Barnett within the first 24 hours after he allegedly killed a mother and her four children in Cocoa Piece, Clarendon, Anderson said “no amount of good police work and public support can diminish the tragic nature of the event.”

Kemisha Wright and her four children – 15-year-old Kimana Smith, 10-year-old Shemari Smith, five-year-old Kafana Smith, all girls, and her 23-month-old son, Kishaun Henry – were found with their throats slashed at their home late last month.

The mass killing sent shock-waves across the country.

READ: WATCH: ‘Dem kill mi one daughter’ cries matriarch of slain family

Although a pall of gloom still hangs over the country as a result of the gruesome Clarendon killings, Anderson reported an overall one per cent reduction in major crimes across the island since the start of 2022 and a 4.4 per cent reduction in murders since the JCF’s last press briefing in June.

“Since our last press briefing, we have managed to reduce the gap in murders from 6.3 per cent, as was reported then, to 1.9 per cent as at the end of June. This represents a 4.4 per cent reduction in murders over that period,” he said.

Robberies and break-ins however, have been on the increase.

When questioned on the reason behind the rise in the number of robberies islandwide, the Commissioner shared that with the citizens now falling back into their regular routines since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, robbery statistics are trending back to pre-COVID levels.