10 killed in two days

By Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter

THE ORGY of violence in Jamaica continues with at least ten people being killed in a 48-hour period between Tuesday night and yesterday morning. Among the victims were a pregnant woman gunned down in Kingston and a 60-year-old man severely wounded in his right eye after a brutal attack.

The police said the 10 people were killed in separate incidents across the Corporate Area, St. Ann, St. James. This has now pushed the number of persons killed since January to 678.

Suzette Phillpot, 27, who was nine months pregnant, was sitting outside her gate on Waltham Park Road, Kingston, about 12:50 yesterday morning, talking with Ricardo Ibar when three gunmen on foot attacked them.

Reports are that Ibar was chased to the rear of the premises where he was cornered and shot several times. The killers then turned the gun on the pregnant woman and shot her in the head. She died on the spot; Ibar succumbed while undergoing treatment at the Kingston Public Hospital.

Shortly after daybreak yesterday morning, residents stumbled upon the body of 60-year-old Clifford Garrick inside an abandoned building in the Backbush area of Mountain View. According to the police, he was hit on the head with a piece of board and died on the spot. His right eye partially popped out of his head.

In West Kingston, police said a 35-year-old higgler, Robert Adams, was shot and killed along Blount Street by gunmen yesterday morning. A few hours later Samuel Richards of a Burry Road address was shot twice in the head in the vicinity of Tools Hardware on Orange Street, Kingston. It is believed that both killings are related to the ongoing feud between rival factions in Kingston's west end.

Also yesterday morning, the lawmen found the bullet-riddled body of Steadman Edgerton Sales, 35, in the trunk of his 1995 Nissan Bluebird car, parked in the Waterhouse area, St. Andrew. Several 9-mm spent shells were found at the scene.

The killings spilled over into Spanish Town, St. Catherine, where Julian Denton, alias "Bredda" was shot and killed while purchasing cigarettes at a shop in the Tredegar Park area.

On Tuesday night taxi driver Michael Taylor was executed by gunmen in the Elletson Flat area of St. Andrew. Reports are that one man has since been taken into custody in connection with this killing.

In St. James, Mark Lawrence, a 22-year-old youth of Bottom Pen district was stabbed and killed in the Norwood area on Tuesday. Carl Newby, a 61-year-old technician of Windsor Road, St. Ann was also stabbed and killed on Tuesday night.

Another man Craig Barrett was shot in Coral Gardens St. Ann on Tuesday night by a licensed firearm holder who reported that the weapon went off accidentally. The Coral Gardens police are conducting further investigations into the matter.

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