Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter
WEEPING RELATIVES and curious students from the nearby Kingston High School, looked on in shock yesterday morning as police converged on the scene of a double murder on Orange Way, Fletcher's Land, where the bodies of two men were found in a panel van.
They have since been identified as 32-year-old Delroy Thomas, a senior service technician employed to Ex-O-Pest Company, for the past 12 years. He was discovered slumped around the steering wheel of the vehicle, with bullet wounds to the head.
Blood was still streaking down his body, dripping onto the road surface. Meanwhile his friend, 23-year-old Lee McCalla, alias 'Terrible Twin', was lying across his lap, with gunshot wounds also to the head. Evidence at the scene suggest that McCalla was killed first and gunshots exited on the driver's side.
According to the police, the men were killed about 8:15 a.m. when a car with four men aboard, came from behind and blocked the path of the panel van. The gunmen jumped out and immediately began firing at the van.
LINKED TO GANG FEUD
"Their deaths might be linked to a gang feud between the rival communities of Jones and Craig Towns, located in the South St. Andrew constituency," said Superintendent Delroy Hewitt, of the Kingston West Police Division.
"Thomas was a decent, hard working man, he was very likeable," said Ian Murphy, manager of Ex-O-Pest Company.
While the police were processing that scene, a barrage of gunshots could be heard about three blocks away. This triggered a wave of excitement from scores of students at the Kingston High School who were looking down from the corridors at the bodies in the van.
On the instructions of Senior Superintendent Calvin Benjamin, experts were immediately called in to offer counselling to the students, some of whom were visibly affected by what they had seen.
Because of the close proximity to the school, SSP Benjamin instructed investigators to have the van with the bodies towed to another location before being taken to the morgue.
Backed by two V-150 military armoured vehicles and a heavy duty rescue unit from Mobile Reserve, members of the security forces tactically moved into the hot spots of the communities that the two men were from. On their way towards Jones Town, one man was found with gunshots wounds along Penn Street. He was taken to hospital.
Deeper into the community, the body of another man was found in a tenement yard on Myers Street. The impact of the bullets partially ripped off his face. Blood stains and head fragments were seen on a wall near where his body was lying.
He was later identified as Ryan McDonald. The police believe his death was a reprisal for the double murder. Several schools in the area were forced to close as a result of the violence.
