By Glenroy Sinclair, Staff ReporterIN THE 89 years that Pastor Joseph Dixon has lived in Kraal, north central Clarendon, at no time has he experienced the level of fear and apprehension being encountered by residents over the past six weeks.
Since news broke on Monday that Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams and former members of the disbanded Crime Mnagement Unit (CMU), were seeking permission to revisit the scene of the shooting in Kraal which left four people dead, residents have become concerned.
Mr. Dixon who is the pastor at the First Holiness Apostolic Faith Church in the district, sums up the mood of the tiny farming community when he said "tension and uncertainty" had gripped the residents since the May 7 shootings.
He said he has been preaching in the district since 1954 and it is the first time he had seen anything like what happened on that fateful day.
"Even people who grew up here are afraid of their own district now," said Mr. Dixon.
When The Gleaner news team visited the district yesterday many of its residents were still struggling to come to grips with the questionable shooting of Angella Richards, 45, Lewena Thompson, 38 and two men identified as "Matthews" and "Renegade". The controversial killings took place at Miss Richards' home.
"Why he wants to come back here?" asked Pastor Dixon. "Well, if he comes back he will not be welcome," he answered.
A security guard who identified himself only as "Brownman" and who operates a small grocery shop in the district, explained that the situation was not the same in the community as commercial activity had come to a halt.
"Since the shooting the place is like a ghost town. By dust everybody gone to bed, nobody really walk the road late again. People are on the look out for everything strange that come up here, we don't trust any strangers," Brownman said.
In the past, the small community normally goes to bed at about 10:00 p.m. Now the town is asleep by 7:00 p.m. "If Adams come back down here today, my baby mother gone left me tomorrow, because she 'fraid of him," said a young farmer, who spoke with The Gleaner.
A group of women also expressed concern about SSP Adams' interest in returning to the scene.
"We don't want him back down here because this time we don't know what him coming to do," the women said.
SSP Adams had written to Police Commissioner Francis Forbes, for permission to revisit the scene to complete the former CMU's report on the incident. The Commissioner on Monday told journalists it was the owner of the premises who would have to give that permission.
