Up to late yesterday afternoon this community was gripped by fear and sorrow following the grisly attack of two masked gunmen who shot and killed a mother and son who were among other family members having dinner on their verandah Friday night.The deceased, both from this community, have been identified as 43- year-old shopkeeper Juliet Grant and her son, Romario Daley, a hotel worker, who would have celebrated his 25th birthday today.
Reports are that, about 8:30 pm, Grant and four of her five children and her mother were having dinner on their verandah when they were pounced upon by two masked men who began to shoot at them with handguns.
The police say Grant and Daley were hit and ran in different directions before collapsing on the nearby roadway. They were taken to the Noel Holmes Public General Hospital in Lucea where they were pronounced dead.
The other family members, including Grant’s three-year-old son, who ran inside the house where they darted under beds, escaped physical harm.
Grant, whose house is on the same premises as her business establishment, reportedly fell to the road off a high ridge beside her house.
“Even if the gunshots did not kill her the fall from off that high rock would have certainly killed her, “ one community member commented when the Jamaica Observer visited the murder scene.
police were on the scene, Grant’s three-year-old son was overheard asking one of his older brothers, who lives at another location, why the police were present.
“What the police dem doing here?” he inquired.
The infant’s older sibling, who stared blankly, also refused to speak with members of the media.
“I was not here so I can’t tell you anything,” the distraught young man said.
“Speaking with the media will not change nothing,” he said when pressed for a comment.
A senior police officer theorised that the shooters are gangsters operating in the nearby Williamsfield, Dias and Middles*x communities.
A Sunday Observer source said that since the start of the year eight murders have been committed by the gang members in the three areas, including two triple murders and Friday night’s double murder.
Commanding officer of the Hanover Police Division Superintendent Sharon Beeput, who visited the troubled community yesterday, stopped just short of fingering a notorious gang terrorising the nearby communities for Friday night’s double murder.
“Based on what is happening here, [it seems] a result of the gang that operates within this space. We would have taken members of the gang into custody already; and we have other persons who we are pursuing,” the senior cop stated.
“We have some leads but I don’t want to divulge much information right now because of the sensitive nature of the case,” Beeput went on.
She, however, indicated that the police have been maintaining a sustained presence in nearby communities where the gang operates but plans are now afoot to intensify operations to dismantle the gang.
“It can’t be business as usual. We will not be saying what the strategies are ,but we will have to do some serious work right here, because it cannot continue the way it is going, because community persons are in fear. So we have to do something and quickly,” the senior officer remarked.
The killings push the murder tally in the parish to 30 since the start the year.
It sad fe know dat all 3 year old haffi a run from bullets. SMH.
Lord have mercy on those children, who are left to mourn the lost of the love ones.