- RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
An aunt of 15-year-old Rushawna Robinson grieves for her nephew who was murdered in Hermitage, August Town, St. Andrew, yesterday. She is surrounded by family members.
Robert Lalah, Staff Reporter
TEARY-EYED MEN drinking beer and sobbing women crouched on sidewalks yesterday, hinted at the horror that unfolded in Hermitage, St. Andrew late Thurday night.
Four persons were gunned down in the community that night and by 10:00 a.m. yesterday, their family members and friends had all gathered in similar disbelief.
Among those killed were Rushawna Robinson 15, Nigel Wright 38 and Paul Johnson 34. They were all at a small house on Payton Street in Hermitage (about 300 yards from the post office gate at the University of the West Indies) about 11:30 p.m. when gunmen opened fire on the house. One man who was in the house managed to escape unharmed.
Just minutes before, at a house about a mile down the road, a man known only as 'Shaggy' was shot and killed while playing dominoes.
The police, however, have not linked the two incidents.
Young Rushawna's aunt was among the women who were gathered at the Payton Street house crying, when The Gleaner arrived at the scene. "I am just visiting from Canada. I got here on Monday and was with Rushawna just last night," she said, her eyes welling up with tears.
IT COULD HAVE BEEN ME
Around her neck the woman was wearing a bloody cell phone strap. She was twisting it with her fingers as she spoke. "Was that his?" the reporter asked, pointing to the strap. The woman said yes, and started to cry even louder. She said she left the house only minutes before the shooting took place. She kept whispering to herself: "It could have been me,".
Down the road, at the house where the man known as Shaggy was killed, the mood was similar. Residents said Shaggy was a respected accountant and was not involved in any wrong doing. "Is just a random shooting, cause Shaggy don't mix up in anything. Most people round here don't even know him," said a man sitting at the entrance of the house.
