Jamaica: Police Officer and teenager drown while swimming at Hellshire Beach on New Year’s day

Jamaica: A policeman and a teenage girl lost their life after being drowned while bathing at a beach in Hellshire, Portmore, St. Catherine, Jamaica, on New Year's Day, January 1, 2026. The deceased victims have been identified as Shamar Grant and 15-year-old Tianna Thomas.

According to police reports, the incident took place around 4:00 PM at a section of the Hellshire coastline known as Board Walk Beach, when the girl and another woman were swimming peacefully.

But suddenly the teen girl and the other woman started to face some difficulties under the water as they both started drowning, following which the other people who were on the beach rushed to help them including the police officer who was on the leave and was enjoying the beach.

As soon as the police constable jumped in the water to help them, he also started facing difficulties and began to drown.

After that the people tried to help them but their efforts were futile, upon which they contacted Personnel from the Marine Division and authorities to the beach. responding to which they immediately arrived at the scene and started searching for all the three victims.

Moments later one of the officers noticed the woman and immediately removed her from the water. And after that medical staff started performing CPR on her to normalise her breathing.

But when they noticed nothing was helping, the officers immediately transported her to the Spanish Town Hospital, where she is still being treated and is in a normal condition.

Authorities disclosed that one of the eye witnesses told them, when the woman and the girl were drawing the man jumped into the water to help them but waves of the water were strong which made all the three persons submerged under the water.

However the police man and the teen girl are still to be discovered as the officials stated that they believed both the victims must have drowned under the water.

Officers also stated that the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the matter is still ongoing.