Glenroy Sinclair and Stephanie Elliott, Gleaner Reporters
FOUR MEN returning from a wake were shot dead by marauding gunmen in the settlement area of Juno Crescent, May Pen, Clarendon, yesterday morning.
Head of the Clarendon Police Division, Superintendent Terrence Bent, said his team of investigators is expected to make an early breakthrough in the quadruple killing.
"We are following some strong leads," said Supt. Bent, who was kept busy yesterday, updating himself about the investigation.
Dead are 23-year-old Otis Smith, whom the police believed was the main target of the attack, Aaron Chambers and Moses Peart, all of Clarendon addresses. The fourth person is Nerrick George of a Bull Savannah address in St. Elizabeth.
More than 80 persons have been murdered in the parish of Clarendon since January. Yesterday's quadruple killings have pushed the country's homicide rate to over 1,570 persons killed since the start of the year.
Reports are that the victims of yesterday's incident were returning from a wake when they were attacked by gunmen. The police have linked the incident to a long-time gang feud between members of rival factions from Juno Crescent and Sevens Road, otherwise known as 'Farm'.
GANG FEUD
At the murder scene, the bullet-riddled bodies of four men were found lying on the road in pools of blood. Supt. Bent stressed that Smith was wanted by the Clarendon police for questioning in the murders of prominent businessmen Maurice Azan, his stepson Lloyd Phang and Randolph Turner.
Police investigators have theorised that the killings were a reprisal for the murder of Paul Francis, alias 'Beebo', a vendor of Paisley district, Palmers Cross, Clarendon. Francis was gunned down earlier this month in his community.
Francis' death has been followed by a spate of murders across the parish, including the killing of one of his alleged cronies, Ken Campbell, who was brutally gunned down last Tuesday on Storks Street, May Pen, several metres from the police station. Another vendor, Anthony Arthurs, was also killed in that incident.
