Cops Deny Reports That Beenie Man Was Arrested

Dancehall veteran Beenie Man is not in custody despite rumors circulating on social media that he was, after allegedly breaching coronavirus regulations.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) and the head of JCF’s Corporate Communications Unit, Stephanie Lindsay, told the Jamaica Gleaner that Beenie Man was not arrested or is in custody.

However, the police did arrive at an event that Beenie Man was hosting last night in memory of his late mother. Beenie Man lost his mother, Lilieth Sewell, earlier this month from what is believed to be complications from a stroke she suffered last year. Since then, he has deleted all his pictures from Instagram.

The event was shut down because, according to SSP Lindsay, the number of people at the event exceeded what is stipulated under the Disaster Risk Mitigation Act. She didn’t reveal how many people were at the event but no event should have more than 15 people.

SSP Lindsay explained that arresting Beenie Man wasn’t necessary because he followed police orders to end the event. She was quoted saying, “He was instructed to close it off. He did comply and the fact that he complied then, there would be no need to arrest him,”.

This is the second time in recent months that Beenie Man has made headlines for being at an event that may have breached COVID-19 protocols put in place. For his birthday in August, the entertainer hosted family and friends at Kaya Herb House. People on social media were quick to speculate that the COVID-19 protocols that were supposed to be in place weren’t being observed. Unfortunately, since some of the guests were at another party with a confirmed case, many of the attendees of Beenie Man’s party got tested for the virus. None have confirmed to have tested positive.

Jamaica has been seeing a rise in COVID-19 cases in recent months. The island has 4758 confirmed cases which include 3291 active cases, 60 deaths and 187 new cases as of September 18th. The response to the surge in cases include reducing the number of people allowed to gather and implementing a daily islandwide curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.