Jamaica: Man kills mom in Portmore rampage
A man believed to be of unsound mind who allegedly murdered his 46-year-old mother in Greater Portmore, St Catherine, was fatally shot early Tuesday after going on a rampage. He attacked security guards and hijacked a motor vehicle.
The mother, identified as Omega Bent, died while receiving treatment at the Spanish Town Hospital.
Her son, Khaleel Bent, was pronounced dead at the same hospital hours later.
The incident has again turned scrutiny on Jamaica’s mental-health crisis, with several persons being killed or wounded by the mentally ill over the last four months. At least four mentally ill attackers have been slain after confrontations.
Professor of mental-health policy Wendel Abel said the State could only take action when family members reach out for help.
“We cannot just say lack of intervention by the State, because the crisis intervention services can only respond when family members call, so we are all responsible. Several actions can be taken along the way, and in many instances, family members do not call early. In other instances, the crisis services do not or respond as early as they should,” Abel told reporters on Tuesday.
Abel, who heads the Department of Community Health and Psychiatry at The University of the West Indies, Mona, said that Jamaica’s investment ratio in mental health care was higher than comparable countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Highlighting the expansion of community treatment and access to scores of health centres islandwide, he urged families of the mentally ill to source free medication through the National Health Fund.
Bent reportedly went to his mother’s home where he struck her with a stone before walking more than three miles in the nude to Phoenix Park, where he attacked a security guard sitting in a Toyota Succeed motor car, smashing the windscreen in the process.
Bent commandeered the vehicle but crashed into a Toyota Hiace minibus driven by a businessman as the guard fled.
He reportedly tried to attack an armed guard affiliated with the same company who had responded to assist his colleague. The guard allegedly fired several shots in Bent’s direction, and he was later found lying on his back, suffering from gunshot wounds.
While declining to speak in detail on the incident, Jason McKay, managing director of McKay Security Company, expressed sympathy with the family of the 46-year-old woman.
“What happened to the lady was very terrible. Something needs to be done about people who display signs of mental illness out here killing people,” McKay said.
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