RESIDENTS in Tredegar Park, St Catherine said that they are in fear for their lives following the shooting of two persons, one of them an 11-year-old boy by gunmen in the community yesterday.
Residents said that about 4:00 am, a group of gunmen posing as policemen ventured into their community where they shot and injured the youngster and another man and then fire-bombed three houses and three cars.
“The man them come in the area and a say them a police and a do house-to- house search and a kick off the people them door and just a fire shot,” one resident who said that he witnessed the incident stated.
The residents said that the men showed no mercy.
Police yesterday said that the 11-year-old boy that was shot in the incident was in serious condition in hospital.
The incident disrupted classes at the nearby Tredegar Park All Age school. Several students there were still in shock when the Observer visited the institution.
“The student that was injured was from this school and it has really traumatised the children here who were to do exams,” said a teacher at the school.
Residents yesterday said that they did not know who the men were searching for.
They, however, said that the incident had left them in fear and in need of increased police presence in the area.
“We want the police in the area right around the clock we need protection,” said one woman who was among a group of residents at the scene of crime.
Police personnel from the St Catherine North Division, when questioned about the attacks yesterday, said that they had not identified a motive for the shootings, although they were following what they called strong leads.
The police also said that they were not ruling out the possibility that a dispute between gangs could be behind the attacks.
According to the police, an ongoing conflict between the One Order and Klansman gangs had resulted in the death of several persons in the past.
Yesterday, as police sieved through the torched remains, some residents could be heard openly expressing their fears, often begging for 24-hour police presence in the area.
Be the first to comment