Residents of Mountain View are fearful that yesterday’s daring daylight murder of a reputed lieutenant of an eastern St Andrew crime lord could trigger a series of reprisals in the violence-plagued community.
The incident took place at a medical centre adjacent to St Theresa Preparatory on Deanery Road a few hours after classes had commenced.
Five others, including a pregnant woman and a four-year-old boy, were also shot in the attack. They were taken to hospital with varying degrees of injury.
The dead man has been identified as Clifton Brown, 42, of a Mountain View Avenue address.
Reports are that about 10 a.m., a gunman stormed the medical facility, pulled a firearm and opened fire before escaping.
In recent weeks, there has been tension and violence between rival gangs from Jacques Road and Goodwich Lane over plyboard that went missing on a construction site at which men from both areas were employed.
The plyboard was subsequently found, but according to the police, a flare-up resulted in the death of a resident of Goodwich Lane. Men have reportedly sworn to avenge the death.
One resident offered that Brown had been “caught flat-footed in a place he thought would be safe since it was outside the community and since he was among countless other people”.
“To me, it sounds like he was either followed to the location or was pounced upon and killed. It is very unfortunate that other people were also victims,” said a resident of Mountain View who requested that his identity be withheld because of safety fears.
CITIZENS SCARED
The attack has left some citizens scared that a major outbreak of gun violence may erupt.
“As me hear what went down, I said to myself that we should start preparing for nuff noise because dem people deh nah just take it like that. A whole heap a reprisals a go start ya now,” said another resident.
Yesterday’s shooting falls in line with a 25 per cent increase in homicides in the Kingston Eastern Police Division, which has recorded 60 murders and a 45 per cent rise in shootings up to October 12, compared with the year-prior data detailed in the Jamaica Constabulary Force Crime Statistics Review.