Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter

Deputy Commissioner of Police Les Green. - Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer

Deputy Commissioner of Police Les Green says the recent spate of multiple killings is casting a shadow on the police's crime reduction efforts.

He was speaking following yesterday's triple murder in Riverton City, St. Andrew. "A double killing or triple killing is one of those strange anomalies that take place because of the ruthlessness of the criminals involved," DCP Green told The Gleaner yesterday, after the police were forced to commence investigations into yet another multiple killing.

"When you get a multiple murder it hits the headlines most," DCP Green conceded.

Since the start of the year there have been 53 cases of double killings, six cases of triple murders and four cases where four or more persons were killed.

Yesterday, for the third time since Saturday, police were called on to investigate another case of multiple murder. The latest occurred in Riverton City, where police recovered three bodies between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Two persons were shot and killed in one section of the community before midnight Tuesday, and by Wednesday morning the body of an unidentified male was found close to the dump.

Family killed

On Saturday, gunmen shot dead four members of a family and injured three others in Retirement, Granville, St. James.

And Sunday morning, four persons were shot and killed, again by gunmen, in Commons, off Red Hills Road, St. Andrew. Six others were injured during the assault.

Police have arrested three men in relation to the St. James shootings but are yet to make a breakthrough in the St. Andrew killings.

They are yet to establish a motive for the Riverton killings.

Terry-Ann Brown, a teenage mother, and 42-year-old Ronald Rose were among patrons at a gambling house when they were shot. The police say Brown, 19, died on the spot while Rose died on the way to hospital.

When The Gleaner visited the area yesterday, save for operations at the nearby dump, Riverton City was like a ghost town. Only a few persons bothered to move about and their steps were not many.

DCP Green said the police have been able to achieve a reduction in murder figures by 300 compared with last year's figures, but stressed that this was not enough.