Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
Police yesterday patrolled the Bayshore Park community of east Kingston where there was a triple murder, on Sunday. The shooting is considered to be a reprisal after the burnt bodies of two men were found on Rose Lane, west Kingston, last Friday.- Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
SOME RESIDENTS in Bayshore Park fled at the sight of unfamiliar vehicles in that east Kingston community yesterday.
With six of their neighbours murdered by gunmen in the past week, fear has set in among inhabitants of this sprawling squatter settlement. Few were prepared to speak when The Gleaner visited yesterday, fearing that the criminals who terrorised the area Sunday and killed four persons would strike again.
One man, who did not want to be identified, said the bloodshed that took place a day earlier was shocking.
"Mi neva si nuthin' like it yet, boss. Wah gwaan bigger than we," he said. He was standing at Everest Drive just metres from the house where Ivenora Campbell, 47, higgler, her son Miguel Panton, 27, and Everton Brown, 42, were murdered about 1:30 Sunday morning.
Ms. Campbell's nine-year-old daughter, who was also shot, is still in hospital. The police report that about 3:00 p.m. a fourth person, Michael Ferguson was killed in the area.
The other occupants of the house where Ms. Campbell lived have left, and signs of the intense struggle that played out there Sunday morning remain. A refrigerator blocked the door to the main house and bloodstains and juice from squashed tomatoes splattered the front porch. Blood also lined the path to the back room of the yard where Mr. Panton reportedly was when the gunmen struck; both doors were kicked in.
INCREASED PATROLS
According to police reports, Mr. Panton and Mr. Brown died on the spot while Ms. Campbell succumbed to her injuries while being treated at hospital. Superintendent Harry Daley of the Area Four police headquarters, who was in the Bayshore Park area yesterday, told The Gleaner that there would be regular police patrols there to ensure there were no follow-up attacks.
"Based on what has happened, it will now require reassurance on the part of the security forces for the people living here in trying to solve these murders," he said. "I'm quite comfortable with the patrol system and other aspects of the operations so far."
Sunday's murders came just two days after two other Bayshore residents were killed in another gruesome episode at Rose Lane in west Kingston. Leroy 'Rodney' Farquharson and Beighton Williams, 29, also known as 'Scotch Brite', were reportedly killed execution-style and then burnt in an open lot.
On Sunday, Assistant Commissioner Glenmore Hinds told The Gleaner that the two incidents might be related. The police believe there is a drug link between men from Bayshore Park and the west Kingston community of Matthews Lane. No arrests have been made in either case.
