SEVERAL SHOOTING incidents on the weekend have left at least six persons dead and several others with bullet wounds.
On Sunday 10 persons were shot, one fatally, at Dam Head, a few miles from Spanish Town, St. Catherine. The dead man has been identified as Edwin Wills, 30, of Dam Head.
The Constabulary Communication Network reports that about 11:50 p.m. there was a dance at a nightclub at Dam Head when a white Toyota Corolla station wagon drove up and the occupants opened fire at a group of persons standing outside.
When the shooting ended it was discovered that 10 persons had been shot. They were taken to hospital where Willis died while being treated.
Hours after the incident, the police responded to a telephone call that a Toyota Corolla station wagon was seen parked off Windsor Road. The police spotted suspects and challenged them. They opened fire at the police, the police fired back and two of the men were hit. They were taken to hospital where they were pronounced dead.
Residents of the area denied that the shooting of the two men went the way the police said it had.
The police later arrested two men and said that a third escaped.
The police said they seized a .38 calibre Smith and Wesson revolver with six cartridges.
In Kintyre, St. Andrew, Carlton Turner, 31, of Camp View Road, Kintyre, was shot dead and two others injured when a gunman opened fire at his vehicle with six men aboard about 7 p.m. on Sunday.
Turner suffered multiple gunshot wounds and he died at the scene. The injured persons were taken to hospital for treatment.
Twenty-four 9mm cartridge casings and bullet fragments were found at the scene.
Derrick Smith, the Jamaica Labour Party's Spokesman on National Security, said the upsurge of violence was cause for concern.
In a release yesterday afternoon, he expressed alarm at what he said was the re-emergence of drive-by shootings and called on the government to "act with due urgency" to prevent the meaningless loss of more lives. He said the JLP stood ready to assist in any way the Government considered necessary.
