Oksana Douglas

The Hunt's Bay police has solved the murder of one of the nine children featured in THE STAR Hunt for Child Killers campaign.

The case was declared solved last week after one of the alleged killers was held after the police received a tip and set up a roadblock.

"We got the information and we acted on it. We have instructed Crime Stop to pay the person the money because the information that was provided has helped us to solve a murder," said Oswald Ayres, deputy superintendent of police (DSP) in charge of Operations for St. Andrew South.

Oksana, who was killed in December last year was on her way home from a party in the Olympic Gardens area when the incident occurred.

Since the roadblock, the police have arrested and charged Oniel Hammond otherwise called 'Golas' of a Kingston 11 address with the child's murder. Another suspect in the murder was shot and killed earlier this year. "The case is now basically closed as we have the main suspect as the other one was killed," said DSP Ayres.

Star's child killers

Oksana's case was highlighted as part of THE STAR's Hunt for Child Killers campaign which offered a reward totalling $100,000 for the arrest and charge of the killers of the children. The campaign was launched in May.

Oksana, along with Maurice Maxwell, Jovaughn Williams, Toni-Ann Thomas, Sasha-Kaye Brown, Shauna-Kay Legister, Sheneca Shakes, Shanika Anderson and Nicholas Baker were featured as the murders that are still unsolved. The police report that the child was among a number of persons returning from a birthday party in the area, when, on reaching the intersection of Tower Avenue and Ebony Road in Olympic Gardens, a white Toyota Corolla station wagon motor car drove up. The occupants of the vehicle opened fire on the group of people and drove away.

Allegations are that the prime suspect in the shooting is a man who ran away recently from the Olympic Gardens community, following a dispute with another man.

The police in the mean time said more murder charges could be brought against Hammond. "He is still being investigated for several other murders in the St. Andrew South area so he could face more charges," he said. Meanwhile, Oksana's mother, Kemmar Brown was at a loss for words when she received the news that her daughter's murder has been solved.

"I don't really feel anyway about it as I am still waiting to hear from the police about the whole thing," she said.