‘We are not safe’

A resident of Waltham Park Road in St Andrew said a concrete wall saved him from being struck by a bullet as gunmen fired indiscriminately, hitting four others during a drive-by attack on Tuesday.

“We are not safe in Jamaica. You can be here today and gone tomorrow. You don’t have to do anybody anything,” the elderly man, who requested anonymity because of safety fears, told The Gleaner.

He was walking along the busy roadway and took cover as men fired from a Voxy motor car.

Four other residents were not as fortunate, as they turned up at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) with gunshot wounds.

Three men and a woman were treated for injuries sustained in the shooting, which started on Fitzgerald Avenue.

“Dem drive on to Waltham and still a fire shot. That is where the woman get shot and dem continue until dem come out of sight,” another resident said.

Householders summoned the police, who found the streets littered with spent casings.

A young girl waited with bated breath to hear from her father who was standing where the shooting occurred but ran for his life, misplacing his phone.

“Mi a call him from when and can’t get him. Mi inna mi house and hear the shot dem, but tru mi just leave him there so. Mi run out the house and go look, but dem say people gone a hospital,” the girl said.

But while our news team was on-site, she oozed relief as she received a call from her father, who assured her that he was indeed safe and not injured.

One of the injured persons was a 75-year-old man who had gone to collect welfare payment.

Another man had just disembarked a taxi when he was struck by a bullet.

The injured woman, who was shot in the abdomen, had recently done surgery.

Head of the St Andrew South Police Division, Superintendent Damion Manderson, said two of the injuries are more serious than the others.

The police have attributed the incident to ongoing gang violence in the area.

Up to news time, the injured persons were still being treated at hospital.

St Andrew South, which was one of seven police divisions under a 14-day state of emergency that lapsed on November 27, has reported an increase in both shootings and murders up to December 11, 2021.

Statistics by the Jamaica Constabulary Force show that shootings have risen by 3.3 per cent to 158 in 2021 compared to 153 in 2020.

Murders have climbed 15.1 per cent to 160 this year, up from 139 in 2020.

A total of 1,384 people have been killed since the start of the year.