Deandrea Hamilton, Dana Malcolm and Wilkie Arthur

Editorial Staff

#TurksandCaicos, November 10, 2023 – Fourteen days before his public execution at the entrance to the Providenciales International Airport the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force was reportedly searching for Jumilla Isma. Attorneys confirm to Magnetic Media that it was suspicions related to illegal guns and ammunition, including high-powered rifles that put the 24-year-old back on their radar for questioning.

It was also these allegations that led police to lay in wait at the Airport on October 19; reports to our newsroom indicate, they too were alerted about Isma’s attempt to unceremoniously leave the country.

Isma had checked in for a British Airways flight to get out of the Turks and Caicos then left the airport for reasons unknown.  Following his slaying, a video was shared of him as he exited the check in terminal at their airport.  By the time he was to return, sources tell us, police officers were already stationed, prepared to seize Jumilla Isma on sight in order to take him in for questioning.  Before that chance materialised, so-called ‘rivals’ who also learned of the 24-year-old’s whereabouts pounced on the man, shooting him dead in a vehicle along with another, 19-year-old Mike Forbes.

It has led those who knew Isma was a person of interest to TCI Police to surmise that had he been taken in or turned himself over to authorities, he may have been spared that fate.

The gruesome scene was sprawled practically at the airport’s gate, residents tell us, stressing that anyone looking to get in or out would have to pass by the body, the blood and the shot-up car.  The killers, who are still at large, sent a third man, who was injured in the melee, scrambling back into the airport lobby soaked in blood as shocked travelers and airport workers looked on.

Isma was no stranger to the law, having been booked for murder multiple times in his short life.

He was charged with the double murder of Tamia Simmons and Stuart Harris – the two were shot to death in a suspected retaliation attack at their Five Cays home in September last year.  Simmons, the girlfriend and Harris, the father of a young man wanted on the streets in an ongoing turf war.  Isma was exonerated of the homicides in May 2023 because of a lack of evidence.

Prior to that, he had been convicted of the killing of Godly Petiote in 2021 and handed a life sentence but the ruling was overturned.  This record may be one of the reasons his death was met with celebration from some residents.

In recent days, videos have emerged of young men spraying champagne and brandishing guns following the gruesome killing of the young man, who had been suspected of involvement in a slew of other crimes.

Despite these concerning videos, police have not yet approached the public with any new information about arrests or suspects in this case.  Police have also not revealed why they were so interested in questioning the young man who is of Haitian heritage.

When we reached out to them their response was: “The RTCIPF will not be making any comments at this time.”

Magnetic Media is told Isma was aware he was a person of interest to police yet he decided against cooperating with law enforcers.  Instead, his murder is another youth snuffed out in the record setting tally of homicides in ongoing feuds between groups or gangs in  the Turks and Caicos Islands.

What sparked this bloody back and forth is unclear, though drugs and profits from its sale have been fingered by authorities.  What is certain is that it has forced beefed-up backing from the UK with additional detectives and aircraft imported to bolster expertise and crime fighting capacity.

In 2020, 15 officers were dispatched from the UK including two Superintendents, Lisa Mitcheson, ( Crime and Public Protection) and Martyn Ball (Specialist Operations).  Again in 2022, 24 more officers were sent in to form an Anti-Gang Unit. In 2023 Superintendent Dean Holden (Head of Crime, Safeguarding and Public Protection) arrived.

The local government has pumped money into the cause as well. Budgets have continually increased over the past three years from $29 million in 2021/22 to $34 million in 2022/23 and money was allocated for 12 marine officers to be added to the Police Force. In 2023/24 financials revealed the Police got $35.9 million, plus $6.2 million in Capital projects.

Since the double murder which marked the 16th and 17th killings for the Turks and Caicos in 2023, there have been threats against a reportedly innocent airport employee who had been accused of taking the video of Isma as he walked out of the terminal after checking in for his flight that fateful Thursday.

There has also been the release of a song which many have described as a group of young men, rhythmically, boldly confessing to the crime.  A near 3-minute rap, featuring a variety of voices, well produced, which says among other things that Jumilla Isma or “Ju” thought he could catch a British Airways flight and get away with murders.  The artists say they knew their act of getting even would be shocking to the nation, but they did not care and were instead focused only on ‘sending him home’.

Since the murders of Isma and Forbes, which drew condemning comments from government leaders including the Governor, Premier and Opposition party, the Royal TCI Police has kept all official information, including updates under lock and key.