Police probing attack on 8-year-old girl hope to make breakthrough soon

 

Investigators from two police divisions and the Criminal Investigations Branch are continuing their probe into the circumstances that led to the abduction and attempted murder of an eight-year-old girl on Thursday.

 

The girl was taken from Braeton Primary School in Portmore, St. Catherine.

 

Superintendent Christopher Phillips, Commanding Officer for the St. Catherine South Police Division, who visited the school Friday, said investigators are conducting interviews to determine how the child was removed from the school.

 

Superintendent Phillips explained that the police are waiting until they have sufficient information before making an official statement on the status of the investigation.

 

Senior Superintendent Marlon Nesbeth, head of the St. Andrew Central Police, said investigators are hoping to make an early breakthrough in the case. 

 

"We are fine-tuning the investigations and we are presently locked in a meeting from the CIB heads of St. Andrew Central and St. Catherine South just as we seek to cover some bases that they need to. They are giving some instructions and guiding some investigative processes. It's a team effort, so they are together dealing with all of that as we speak," he said.

 

"We expect that we will have some many questions answered as we go forward and we put the puzzle together. And we are hoping as we go forward that we will find the perpetrators of this very gruesome act," the senior cop added.  

 

Reports are that the child's throat was slashed and she was thrown from a vehicle along Roosevelt Avenue in the St. Andrew Central police division.

 

Investigators say the child was seen walking along the busy thoroughfare.

 

She bumped into a vehicle and the driver made inquiries.

 

The motorist realised that the girl had a wound to her neck and rushed her to hospital where she underwent emergency surgery.  

 

 

Education Minister Fayval Williams expressed sadness at the attack on the child but was grateful that she was found and is still alive. 

 

She has joined the appeal for blood donors for the girl who is said to be in critical condition at hospital.

 

"I know that she is in the hospital and I just read where there is a call for blood and so I just want to appeal to Jamaicans who are in the area to really rally to the cause and to say a prayer for her that God will pull her through," she said. 

 

She was speaking Friday at the launch of the Manchester School Peace Ambassador Initiative.