Tommy Lee Sparta sends a message to the youth amid an alarming rise in Jamaica’s crime rate.
Jamaica has been experiencing a wave of crime over the last week, and the island is presently mourning the death of 9-year-old Gabriel King, whose throat was slashed after his mother’s car was stolen.
It’s been an emotional week that has elicited condemnation from some of the most respectable in the dancehall fraternity, including Bounty Killer and Beenie Man. Tommy Lee Sparta has also added his voice.
The incarcerated deejay is presently serving a three-year sentence for illegal gun possession to which he had pleaded guilty in 2021, and he wants others to learn from his mistake.
“Mi a behave miself. Crime an’ violence must stop…it nuh pay; it cost. Love is the way,” Tommy Lee’s official account posted on Friday.
Jamaica has been experiencing a new wave of crime even though the country has just begun a new year. In just eight (8) days, there have been 37 deaths from January 1 to January 8, 2022, a 32 percent increase over the corresponding period last year, the Jamaica Constabulary Force said.
Within the first two weeks of the year, there has also been an increase in violence against children, something Tommy Lee Sparta could relate to as his daughter was shot in March 2020 in an incident that caused her to be hospitalized, while a nine-year-old boy died in an incident in the dangerous community of Flankers, Montego Bay.
The artist updated fans that his daughter has been recuperating and getting back to normalcy.
“My baby hand is getting well, nah lie. Unno fi gi mi props, enno,” he said.
The artist shared videos of his daughter doing physiotherapy due to the incident, which has left injuries to her hands and affected her motor skills.
In the meantime, Tommy Lee has been serving his sentence for illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.
The “Spartan Soldier” singer was sentenced in the Gun Court division of the Home Circuit Court in Kingston last year.
Police reports are that the singer, on December 14, 2020, was arrested after a 9mm Glock pistol with an extended magazine containing 18 rounds of ammunition was found in the dancehall artist’s waistband following a police search of his vehicle.
Tommy Lee Sparta is expected to finish his sentence sometime in 2024. In the meantime, the artist who has been linked to gang-related activities is also being investigated for possible murders which may have been committed with the gun in question.
