Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter
The police search the burnt-out remains of a house along Barnes Avenue, off Maxfield Avenue in St. Andrew, in which four persons died after the dwelling was firebombed by several armed men. - PHOTO BY RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
FOR MANY residents of Barnes Avenue in St. Andrew, the screams of 10-year-old Sasha-Kay Brown, as she attempted to escape the fire which eventually took the lives of her grandparents, her aunt and herself, will live with them forever.
Tearful women told The Gleaner yesterday how they heard Sasha-Kay crying out for help, until her voice faded in the blaze which destroyed the family's five-bedroom concrete house near Maxfield Avenue, yesterday morning.
Dorcas Brown, her husband Gerald, their daughter Michelle, along with Sasha-Kay, were trapped inside the building, after heavily armed gunmen fire-bombed their house about 3:00 a.m.
Neighbours who attempted to assist the young girl were fired at by the gunmen.
PLEADING FOR HELP
"The little girl climbed up on the grill and called out the names of almost everybody who lived on Barnes Avenue, begging them to come and help her," said a woman who spoke with The Gleaner.
"But (when) we ran out of our houses and tried to assist her, the gunmen fired at us. The last thing we heard the little girl said was that the fire was burning her, then her voice just faded."
The charred remains of Sasha-Kay and her grandmother were found on the veranda while in another room were the burnt bodies of her aunt and grandfather.
Lying outside the gate was the body of a brown dog, which was also shot and killed by the gunmen. The strong scent of gasolene polluted the atmosphere inside the burnt-out yard.
Sasha-Kay's mother, Yolanda Guthrie, said she last saw her daughter on Sunday. The child lived with her grandparents for most of her life, but visited her mother on weekends.
"Me daughter should never lose her life so," the 26 year-old mother of three said.
Head of the West Kingston Police Division, Deputy Superintendent Delroy Hewitt, has linked the fire-bombing and death of the four family members to an ongoing gang feud in the community.
"We believe the fire-bombing is a reprisal to an incident in which a man was shot and injured. The injured man is now hospitalised under police guard," said DSP Hewitt.
The feud is between men from Barnes Avenue and Ramsay Road.
But residents are blaming a group of Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) soldiers for the death of the family members.
SOUGHT ASSISTANCE
"When de man dem come and start fire de shot dem, people run go down a de Whitfield Town All-Age School and call de soldier dem, but dem sey dem not coming because no police not there yet," said a group of residents who spoke with The Gleaner.
Members of Parliament Dr. Omar Davies and Portia Simpson Miller visited the scene and honoured a request from the citizens to clear a bushy area, located at the end of Barnes Avenue. Residents claimed the gunmen were using the area as an escape route.
A black flag hoisted at the intersection of Barnes and Maxfield avenues, signifies the spate of killings in that part of community.
Sasha was a student at the nearby Rousseau Primary School.
