Jamaica: 1 killed, 3 injured in rampage firing by Gunmen

Kingston, Jamaica: Gunmen started an open fire in a shop, killing one individual and leaving three severely injured. The incident took place in Lilliput, St James, on Saturday evening at around 7 pm. 

The deceased’s identity has been identified as Cedric Brown, and among the injured are a 34-year-old man, a 51-year-old woman and a 58-year-old man. The Barrett Town Police authorities have commenced the investigation.  

A group of people stood at the shop when armed men came and started firing on the people. The injured were immediately taken to the hospital, where one of them was pronounced dead. Apart from this, no other information has been commenced by the authorities. 

Councillor for the Rose Hall Division, Anthony Murray, condemning the incident cited, “I am very much concerned about this incident as it relates to the increase in the shooting and killing in my area. I must also say that before this escalation in shooting, I had reached out to the relevant authorities pursuing intervention & asking for some level of proactivity, and now we are seeing where we have weekly shootings & killings in my division and it is really a concern”. 

He noted that if there could have been proactivity, it might have saved the deceased, highlighting that around five murders have been recorded over the past week in the area between Spot Valley and Lilliput.

The councillor noted that the situation is getting out of hands now, adding something stringent needs to be done, such as imposing a curfew in the area.  

Although several hotspots regions of the island are under curfew following the soar in criminal activities, this has made Jamaica among the Caribbean nations to have the highest crime rate in the region. This rising crime rate is a great threat to the reviving economy as well as for the tourism sector of the island.