St James, Jamaica (McKoy’s News) – Another Teen Killed: 15-year-old Jahiem Dushard of a Glendevon address has become the latest murder victim to be added to the number of persons being killed in St James since the start of this year. According to residents Dushard was shot and killed while he slept in his bed. His worried family members said they are unaware of him being involved in any conflict or controversy with anyone.
Many residents are now cramped with fear as it seems the police are powerless in putting an end to the rapacious murderers, who continue to manipulate and dominate.
“The area has been quite tense in recent weeks, with a number of shootings. Just last week, a mother and her 11-month-old baby were shot just down the road on Blood Lane. Things are out of control, people are afraid to walk the streets,” said a resident.
There were several shooting incidents on Sunday, which claimed the lives of two persons. The deceased are an unidentified man who was shot dead on Rough Lane shortly before daybreak and Brian ‘Bigga’ Lewis of a Glendevon address was cornered and executed gangland-style at about 9:30 a.m. in the bus park in downtown Montego Bay.
Information garnered are that Lewis was out on bail after being recently charged with two counts of murder. However, there was no way for him to escape his attackers as they surrounded him from various directions with guns ablaze. After he was killed, one of his attackers reportedly searched his body, but it is uncertain if anything was taken from him.
The parish has now become like a war zone with an unidentified man being shot dead in Granville on Saturday, another one shot and killed in the Cambridge community which members of the Ryan ‘Ratty’ Peterkin gang has taken over and the unidentified body of the Caucasian woman who was found with her throat slashed and body covered with blood on Long Hill.
On Saturday night, at approximately 10:30 p.m., men armed with high powered rifles went on a rampage in St John’s, in the Orange community, killing two men and seriously injuring two others. Dead are 23-yr-old Oshane Reid and 27-yr-old Cassell Todd.
“St James was like a war zone over the weekend. As you reach one murder scene, you get call to another murder scene,” a policeman said. “We have 296 murders already this year and one more shot don’t have to fire for it to get to 300, because we have some 10 or 11 persons battling for life in hospital that could die at any time.”
Over the past two weeks, St James has had over 20 murders. The business community and other critical stakeholders are shouting for new security measures to stop the bloodletting.
Last year, St James had what was an unprecedented 264 murders. However, despite a series of new policing initiatives and a shake-up in the parish’s command structure, the murder rate continue to rise in the parish.
