A BUSINESSMAN who police believe was the victim of an on-going extortion racket, was gunned down in a busy vendors' arcade in downtown Kingston yesterday afternoon.
He is Mr. Cecil Blackman, 40, of Waterford, St. Catherine.
With blood oozing from his head he was lying in the arcade at Beckford and West streets, as the police took his fingerprints.
Eye-witnesses said he was chased into the arcade by his attackers who shot him in the back of the head.
It's reported that he sold clothing and other items, between Half-Way Tree and downtown Kingston, from a van.
The police believe he might have refused to pay "protection money" demanded by extortionists.
Mr. Blackman is one of 10 people killed over the last four days in the Corporate Area, pushing to 89, the number of homicides in the first 39 days of 2001 -- three more than in the same period in 2000.
According to police reports, two persons were gunned down in Central Kingston on Wednesday. The bodies of two more men were found with bullet wounds to the head in a BMW car on Padmore Drive, St. Andrew, seven hours later.
The police believe the two men, from Grove Road, Kencot, were lured to Padmore Drive and executed in a row over illegal activities they were involved in.
Portland police told The Gleaner last night that the body of Milton Clarke, 48, with head injuries, was discovered in John's Town district. He was last seen alive about 8 a.m. yesterday.
Also killed was Lyndel Thame, 54, who succumbed to a bullet wound inflicted Monday morning. She was among three persons shot by gunmen in Greenwich Farm, south-west St. Andrew, where there has been an on-going feud between rival gangs. The police said she died in the Kingston Public Hospital Wednesday evening.
