A 16-year-old boy was killed in Jamaica after allegedly getting mauled by a shark when spearfishing. After going into the ocean by himself, Jahmari Reid of Falmouth, Trelawny, was discovered the next day with his head severed. According to the local media, the victim was beheaded and had one of his limbs amputated. At present, there are attempts to kill the shark and retrieve the severed head. The teenager left home early on Monday and went spearfishing by himself in a northern parish located 20 miles east of the well-known tourist attraction Montego Bay.
Lavern Robinson, the teen’s mother, told the Jamaica Star that her son was in 10th grade at William Knibb Memorial High School and was preparing to move on to grade 11. “Right now [I] don’t know what to say. Jahmari has been going to the sea since he was small,” she told the publication.
Jahmari’s uncle, Robert Robinson, a fisherman, told CBS News that when his nephew didn’t come back from the ocean at his “usual time,” the family started to “grow concerned,” and they set up a search team to try and find him.
Fisherman Christopher Reynolds told the Jamaica Observer that on Tuesday morning, a group of divers found Jahmari’s remains and carried him to Falmouth Fishing Beach. According to the publication, Reynolds had been informed that divers had sighted a “big” tiger shark in the water close to where Jahmari’s remains were found, but they had not been able to capture the animal.
Another angler told Loop Jamaica News that in his years of fishing, nothing like this has ever occurred in Falmouth. He also said that when you are spearfishing and a shark starts to circle around you, release the thread and hand it to him.
The Jamaica Observer reported that Fritz Christie, the president of a Falmouth Fisherfolks Benevolent Society, described the incident as the first loss in the Trelawny area ever. Christie, however, believes that the shark followed a cruise ship and did not swim away, as per the publication.
Vice principal of Jahmari’s school Audrey Steele called the late teenager “just a quiet boy,” according to the Jamaica Star.
The International Shark Attack File, maintained by the Florida Museum of Natural History and the American Elasmobranch Society, shows that since 1749, there have only been three documented instances of unprovoked shark attacks in Jamaica.
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