Etana Says Her Cousin ‘Stenna’ Is In Stable Condition After Police-Involved Shooting

Grammy-nominated Reggae artist Etana is thanking her lucky stars that her cousin ‘Stenna’ is now recuperating in a stable condition at the University Hospital of the West Indies after he was shot on Sunday.

“He has stabilized and he is talking. I am just happy that he never died,” she told DancehallMag today. “When my auntie went there yesterday, he was barely talking, the bullet went through his lower abdomen but did not shatter his ribs. He is talking, he didn’t even know how he ended up in the hospital, that is the saddest ting.”

‘Stenna’ was shot in August Town, St Andrew on Sunday morning, allegedly by a member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).  Reports are that during a police operation in the Bottom River area of August Town at about 5:50 am, a man allegedly armed with a knife attacked a member of the police party.  A member of the police team reportedly discharged a round from his service rifle in the direction of the man, who fell and was found to have been shot in the lower abdomen.

Etana—who had dedicated her Ward 21 (2014) song to Stenna— took to social media on Sunday, and said members of the August Town community actively tried to dissuade the cops from shooting ‘Stenna’ during the incident. 

The Strong One is hoping that the police personnel will not charge her cousin with assault given the police’s version of events, because that would only add “insult to injury”.

“I am just watching to see if they’re going to charge him. He can’t even defend himself, poor ting. There are witnesses who did not see any attack with any knife, people are talking. When he was on the ground, people within earshot said he told one of the cops, ‘ah just drive me a drive through’,” she said.

“I hope that they realize that he is of unsound mind and have some compassion because he already got shot for no reason. By nature, he is not an aggressive person so he was not a threat to anyone,” the Grammy nominee added.